How nimble Brexit Britain has outpaced the sloth-like EU on trade
EU takes 25+ years trying – and failing - to secure a free trade deal with South America
Brexit Britain did it in just over 2 years with the enormous Trans-Pacific trading bloc CPTPP
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024
As French farmers protest on the streets, Facts4EU.Org looks at the EU Commission’s appalling trade record
As we reported on Tuesday (19 Nov 2024), the EU is once again in big trouble over its latest proposed trade deal with five large South American countries, known as the ‘Mercosur’ trade bloc. French farmers in particular are up in arms about this and the new PM, Michel Barnier of Brexit infamy, has warned that France could “explode”.
In this report we reveal just how badly the EU Commission has performed over the last 25 years and contrast this with a very nimble and positive performance by the UK’s Dept for International Trade, now ‘The Dept for Business and Trade’. We are also updating readers on the British farmers’ protests about the Labour Government’s tax grab and the French farmers’ imminent revolts over what they see as Macron’s and Barnier’s failure to defend their livelihoods.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
We cite three examples of how Brexit Britain has out-performed the EU
- The UK’s Trans-Pacific trade deal known as CPTPP
- The EU’s failed Mercosur trade deal with South America, and
- The UK’s trade deal with Australia and the EU’s total failure to achieve the same
1. Brexit Britain secured a free trade agreement with a massive global trading bloc, at impressive speed
On 02 June 2021, just five months after the UK formally left the EU and its ‘Transition Period’, the 11 countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership known as CPTPP agreed to invite the United Kingdom to become the first non-founding member of their fast-growing trade bloc.
The International Trade Secretary at the time, and future Prime Minister, Liz Truss said:
“CPTTP membership is a huge opportunity for Britain. It will help shift our economic centre of gravity away from Europe towards faster-growing parts of the world, and deepen our access to massive consumer markets in the Asia-Pacific.
“We would get all the benefits of joining a high-standards free trade area, but without having to cede control of our borders, money or laws.”
- The Rt Hon Liz Truss, 02 June 2021
Just three weeks after the CPTPP nations met, negotiations began and two years later on 16 July 2023 the then Business and Trade Secretary (now Conservative Party Leader) Kemi Badenoch formally signed the accession treaty in New Zealand.
“I’m delighted to be here in New Zealand to sign a deal that will be a big boost for British businesses and deliver billions of pounds in additional trade, as well as open up huge opportunities and unparalleled access to a market of over 500 million people.
“We are using our status as an independent trading nation to join an exciting, growing, forward-looking trade bloc, which will help grow the UK economy and build on the hundreds of thousands of jobs CPTPP-owned businesses already support up and down the country.”
- The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, speaking from New Zealand, 16 Jul 2023
On 15 December – in just four weeks’ time - this massive trade deal is scheduled to enter into force.
The EU also expressed an interest in joining the CPTPP but this has gone nowhere.
2. The sharp contrast between nimble Brexit Britain and the sloth-like EU
Contrast this with the EU’s sloth-like progress trying to secure a free trade agreement with another large trading bloc : Mercosur of South America.
Below we show the stark difference between the nimble Brexit Britain and the lumbering EU.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
UK’s efficient negotiations with CPTPP bloc versus EU’s laborious negotiations with Mercosur bloc
- EU (MERCOSUR) : 9,278 days
- UK (CPTPP) : 755 days
[Sources : EU Commission and the House of Commons Library.]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
3. The UK’s trade deal with Australia and the EU’s total failure to achieve the same
© DFAT (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 2024 - click to enlarge
Trade negotiators from the UK and Australia held the first round of negotiations for a UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 29 June and 10 July 2020. The UK and Australia subsequently signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in December 2021 – just 18 months later. This followed an ‘Agreement in Principle’ in June 2021, where most of the deal had been agreed.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:
“Our UK-Australia trade deal is a landmark moment in the historic and vital relationship between our two Commonwealth nations. This agreement is tailored to the UK’s strengths, and delivers for businesses, families, and consumers in every part of the UK – helping us to level up. We will continue to work together in addressing shared challenges in global trade, climate change and technological changes in the years ahead.
“Today we demonstrate what the UK can achieve as an agile, independent sovereign trading nation. This is just the start as we get on the front foot and seize the seismic opportunities that await us on the world stage.”
- The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, International Trade Secretary, 16 Dec 2021
The Australian Prime Minister and the Minister for Trade and Tourism announced 31 May 2023 as the date the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement entered into force. In its 32 chapters it covers a wide range of issues, including the removal of most tariffs on trade between the UK and Australia.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
UK’s efficient and successful negotiations with Australia versus the EU's abject failure
- EU-Aus abortive trade negotiations : 1,946 days
- UK-Aus successful trade deal : 536 days
[Sources: UK Dept for Business and Trade | Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | EU Commission]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
Other highly significant provisions cover trade in services, digital trade, public procurement and intellectual property. UK citizens aged under 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia more easily. There are provisions covering technical barriers to trade, and sanitary & phytosanitary (SPS) measures relating to food safety, and animal and plant health. There are also chapters on small business, the environment, and animal welfare.
We get the messages out there but if you want us to keep doing work like this,
please support us with a small (or large!) gesture, or we will have to cut back dramatically.
Every few pounds helps to keep us fighting for Brexit,
and for independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom.
Please help us today if you can – it takes just two minutes and your details are kept confidential.
Conversely, the EU-Australia deal is ‘in the sheep-dip’
And what about the EU and Australia? The EU’s failure to reach an agreement with Australia makes for awkward reading in Brussels, which had trumpeted this proposed deal for years. The Commission started trade talks with Australia six years ago back in 2018, which makes the breakdown all the more frustrating for the Australians.
At the end of October last year we reported on the dramatic withdrawal by the Australians, frustrated with the intransigence of the EU Commission.
Meetings planned with EU Commissioners were cancelled
On 29 October last year (2023) Australia walked away from negotiations with the EU. It had first done this three months earlier but the latest impasse is likely to last for two years before either side tries again.
In a statement in the Japanese city of Osaka that night, the Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said that no progress had been made after meeting EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on the fringes of the G7 Summit.
"I came to Osaka with the intention to finalise a free trade agreement. Unfortunately we have not been able to make progress. Negotiations will continue, and I am hopeful that one day we will sign a deal that benefits both Australia and our European friends."
- Don Farrell, Australian Trade Minister, 29 Oct 2023
Frustration for the Australians as the EU Commissioners won’t compromise
The reality is that no progress will be made for another two years. These negotiations started in 2018 at a time when the EU was desperate to show it was good at trade deals, following the UK’s dramatic progress in talks with countries around the world.
The EU wants Australia’s valuable minerals including lithium and Australia wants the EU’s market for beef, lamb and other produce. At the time of writing there is no prospect of this.
Observations
Rejoiners have questions to answer
Extremist, anti-democratic Rejoiners are forever asking for 'the benefits of Brexit', no matter how many we research and publish. Well here's another one. The UK does trade deals in two years or less, and the EU struggles in more than 25 years.
It must be said that the EU Commission's performance in negotiating international trade agreements has been pitiful since it took over sole and exclusive responsibility for all trade relations outside the EU. Member states are forbidden to have any trade talks themselves. Even after the UK voted to leave, when the Commission suddenly woke up and ramped up its efforts, the results have been dismal.
Witness the collapse of the EU-Australia deal in October last year. Now we have another to add to the Commission's long line of failures or desperately protracted and unsuccessful negotiations.
What is perhaps most embarrassing about these failures is that the Commission trumpets its supposed achievements loudly on a regular basis, only for us to find subsequently that they were whistling in the (trade) winds. When it comes to the supposed deal with the Mercosur countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, (announced in 2019), it must be considered a scandal that not only have these talks lasted for more than 25 years, but there is still doubt about it, given the strong objection from France and to a certain extent from a few other EU countries. This is disinformation if ever we saw it.
We would love to see any Rejoiner try to address this point directly, without immediately trying to deflect onto a completely different subject.
The Facts4EU.Org site and its activities such as conferences, TV & video interviews, forums, etc, are :-
- Advert-free : no annoying distractions or ‘pop-ups’
- Paywall-free : Reading our news and reports does not require you to sign up and pay
- Merchandising-free : We don’t try to sell you t-shirts or coffee mugs advertising us
- Sponsorship-free : No corporate sponsorship funds our reports – we’re independent
- We’re funded by donations from you – the public
The content :-
- Unique, original, well-researched reports
- No ‘re-hashing’ of articles you’ll read elsewhere
- Based on official data, statements and reports, analysed by us
- Transparent sources : Whether it’s the EU Commission, the ONS, or the IMF, we state where we obtained our data
- We rely solely on donations from you – the public - to keep us going
NOTICE : Facts4EU has now scaled back to publishing 5 days-a-week
For nine years we have worked seven days-a-week. As far as we are aware we are the only organisation of our type to have done this. We are grateful to those of our readers who have made donations but sadly the level of our funding is now such that we must make it stretch for as long as we can. This means team members taking other paid work and reducing our output to five days-a-week.
Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.
[ Sources: UK Dept for Business and Trade | Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 20 Nov 2024
Click here to go to our news headlines
Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget actually to post your message after you have previewed it!
Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.
Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.
We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.
Any credit card user
Quick One-off
From £5 - £1,000
Monthly
From £3 per month
Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first
Quick One-off
Monthly
Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments