Observations

Yesterday the broadcast media greeted with disdain the good news that the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State for International Trade, had signed a trade deal with Switzerland. The story was not that he had signed a trade deal, but that he was ‘prioritising’ the largest economies with whom to agree a deal pre-Brexit.

What on earth would they expect? The majority of the countries on the EU’s list of ‘agreements in place’ would barely be noticeable if for any reason they chose not to replicate the deals they have with the EU. Indeed, in many cases these ‘deals’ come at a net cost, such as those with EU-accession countries where the EU actually gives these countries billions and which the UK taxpayer part-pays for.

Do journalists expect Dr Liam Fox to give the same weight to tiny Moldova with whom the UK does virtually no business, as to Switzerland, with which the UK does a lot of trade?

The propaganda is relentless

British journalists who want to present the EU as some form of Holy Grail are ably assisted by the EU, which puts out a daily stream of propaganda. Many journalists seem to read the first few lines, and this is what is presented to the public.

It doesn’t take long to drill down and see the true picture, but the real facts don’t fit the narrative, and so are ignored.

Yesterday proved to be a classic case in point

When we started reporting on this three years ago, the EU claimed just six ‘free trade agreements’. After attention started to be focused on this area of EU incompetence during the Referendum campaign, the number of ‘agreements’ which were listed by the EU steadily multiplied. Soon all manner of loose ‘co-operation agreements’ started to be included, as readers can see above.

Even with agreements which aren’t free trade agreements at all, the EU can only list 36 countries with whom something is ‘in place’.

The ultimate irony

Most British journalists don’t seem to understand one fundamental thing. It is not necessary to have a Free Trade Agreement with a country in order to trade with it successfully.

Currently the top country taking UK exports is the USA. Not Germany, not France, not even Italy. For years the USA has been the UK’s biggest customer.

Thanks to the EU’s incompetence at negotiating trade deals, they couldn’t even manage to conclude a US deal when the europhiliac President Obama was in power.

#GoWTO public campaign

A full, clean World Trade Brexit on 29 March means that the UK can finally deal with the World on its own terms in the interests of the British people, not in the interests of French farmers, Spanish orange growers, or German washing machine manufacturers.

Whether we negotiate free trade deals, reduce our ‘most-favoured’ tariffs for WTO trade, or a combination of the two, the UK’s trading future will be full of possibilities for British business and British success.

Please tell your MP by using our #GoWTO campaign. And please donate so that we can bring you more facts like these above, and so that we can carry out far more campaigning in these vital days for Brexit.