England: Mr Bates versus the Establishment

All a trade off in negotiations, work on the basis of a balance in existing trade in products, assess what a tariff reduction will deliver in terms of overall trade and trade related concessions ( including services), how competitive you might be in the market, sometimes a phasing in might benefit in the time to develop a product and get investors, identify potential buyers Each side would have priorities. Inevitably there are winners and losers. I dreaded being the bunny having to explain to losers from such negotiations.
Do you know what the tariffs are for the same products in the UK/EU FTA - I guess zero, maybe they have some funny side deal which would preserve their privileged access for an odd item for a prescribed period.
To note also that each side would be working from the WTO bound tariff rate item by item or a tariff group.
The WTO bound rate is the maximum tariff rate bound by treaty. Also, a WTO bound tariff, or a tariff bound in an FTA cannot for the future be undermined by a subsequent measure which would debase the value of the binding, for example a domestic subsidy to local producers or some new internal tax which would favour the domestic supplier, or a technical standard that only the domestic producer could meet (

  • the non violation nullification or impairment rule). That rule is helpful to longer term investment.
    In practice, Australian tariff levels give little protection, as the Australian applied tariff rate is usually far below the WTO bound rate, often at 5% or less.
    This FTA , as with all other FTAs will need to be examined in the WTO for compliance with WTO rules on FTAs and Customs Unions.

BTW, don’t think for a minute that this was an FTA whipped up between Boris and Scotty and polished off by Dan Tehan. They take painstaking years to negotiate and involve just about every agency and industry body and environmental groups…
They also have to go to Parliamentary scrutiny. If legislation is required to give effect to some of the treaty, so be it, but it’s often bipartisan.
If you don’t like what you got out of the tariff deal, you should write to your Fed MP and or Senators.

There is a bit of that, but to bear in mind also that, while are a big exporter of some agricultural products, we are a small producer, some of our products are sold globally under long term contracts, in some cases time is needed to invest in production capacity ( including for processed dairy products. In some cases we have a quarantine status edge, which keeps the lower cost Latins out of the market( particularly for beef), sometimes it’s a freight rate advantage.
We already have some WTO bound tariff quotas on beef, sheepmeat and I think some dairy.
We are a raw sugar exporter and would have to compete with UK and EU beet sugar for a slice of the market. Last time I worked on sugar issues, there were only two UK cane sugar refiners , who were being supplied from Africa the Caribbean and Pacific (Fiji) under a special WTO quota deal for developing countries. Our sugar cane production levels are largely driven by world sugar prices ( we have won two WTO cases on that score against the EU and Indian subsidies)
Maybe also there is something in the deal with the UK that binds the level of domestic agricultural subsidies, which would be more value than a tariff.

1 Like

I will defer to your knowledge on the issue. I’ll admit that most of my gut feel on the issue comes from Clarkson’s Farm. Recommended viewing by the way.

1 Like

Thanks. I think I have seen some of Clarkson. I preferred to work on agricultural trade issues in negotiations and disputes as it involved dealing with farmers through to big agribusiness, covered just about every part of Australia and I could relate back to it being about someone’s livelihood , it also had to accomodate competing political interests ( very scary around election time). At the international level it was great working with other agricultural exporting countries, often developing countries and accomodating different cultures. Sugar was the most engrossing, given the slavery history ( except for Thailand and India) and the fact that so many of us were from former colonies, dealing with former colonial powers in Europe .i don’t do it any more have moved on but had a great, if stressful time. Quarantine related trade issues was about the worst.

1 Like

Ireland is around 20% renewables.

27 posts were split to a new topic: Nuclear power generation

A post was merged into an existing topic: Nuclear power generation

Rayner destroyed Johnson at question time. He sweated, stumbled, lied, then tried to leave the building before black rod (or whoever’s running the show)stopped him.

Mid grilling she stopped and asked him if he’s ok.

1 Like

And she did it again today via an UQ Labour put down re: Boris and those No.10 lockdown parties. Tomorrow’s PMQs should be another bloodbath for BJ and the Tories who are stumbling around like drunken sailors. Mind you they’ve been like that for ages now … problem is those here in the UK are suffering as a result.

I like Marina Hyde and John Crace in the Guardian. Their articles have kept me slightly sane these past few years pre and post BRexit… Today was another cracker from both if you fancy a laugh. Seriously though, Boris and his ■■■■ leadership hasn’t been a laughing matter for a long time now.

4 Likes

Leadership of most countries has been a shambles during the pandemic. A full blown health and economic crisis seems to bring that out among those we expect to be perfect. Its certain Boris has lied about the No 10 parties, and in the Westminster tradition should resign for misleading parliament.

Meanwhile on the other side of the “pond” aka the Atlantic, there is a head of state who lied endlessly for over 4 years and continues to lie. Its certain he plotted to overthrow the will of the people at an election but he just strides on, doubling down on his lies.

Boris might be a hapless buffoon, but he is not the worst leader on the planet. He will be gone by the end of the week.

1 Like

Oh, there’s a Melbourne Cup-sized field vying for that particular mantle. Our very own smirking shiithead of a used car-salesman would certainly be a contender. The thing holding him back would be the fact that Straya is but a pimple on the butt of the world in global terms.

How confident are you in your last sentence?

2 Likes

What’s you’re definition of worst?

Incompetence is one thing, but incompetence ameliorated by misuse of all the resources the first world has to offer takes the cake.

Boris has taken a lot of cake.

Boris will last, Scotty from marketing will get re-elected and you will like it.

It’s a fake, but can we all make out that it’s real…

2 Likes
8 Likes

Australia started with bogus safety vests last year, but a new high bar for political protests has been set in the UK

6 Likes

I didn’t know this thread existed

3 Likes

The currenrt version of this thread started in June 2016.

Pay attention at the back there !

1 Like

Yesterday there was a story on the BBC about how some 18 year old in the UK had a party during lockdown, and copped a STG10,000 fine due to excessive numbers. OK, the fine was waived when they sort of took pity on the kid because he had no money. I am sure there were many such cases.

Not so the parliamentarians, they need to be fined at least STG10,000 for each breach of lockdown rules, and have it docked from their salaries.

The UK parliamentarians have an appalling history of abuse of expenses / privileges. Like the rorts by members of both sides during the Blair/Brown government which boiled up in 2009. Remember? One member even had the moat on his private estate cleaned and paid for with taxpayers money.

1 Like

From afar, this is all hilarious.

So not investigating crimes that have already happened, and now we can add, only investigating crimes that have been confiremd by private, internal investigation.

If the cops ever call around to my place of work, I’ll just tell them they’ll have to wait until I’ve finished investigating myself

5 Likes