The Guardian notes this morning that:
Britain must be global leader in free trade, says PM, after Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election as US president
It's a statement that makes no sense for three reasons.
First: there is no such thing as free trade. There are always rules, and the rules are there for good reason. Most protect us from abuse and fraud. Some collect tax.
Second, the claim assumes others want free trade, but that's not the case. They want to work within strong frameworks of rules.
Third if she wants tariff free trade we already have it with our biggest trading partners via the EU and are giving it up. And the US is not going to make it available.
In which case the claim is utter nonsense.
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But Richard, major multinationals want variations, that way they can play off locations for their investments. The EU v Apple is about that. The big players are presumably in back room negotiations to repatriate spare money from Bermuda to the US.
I’m not sure if you have seen the Sheffield VCs article about his perception of how well the Trade visit to India went. He was part of May’s theme. “I feel truly ashamed” is the headline. It is very similar to what I said on the blog last week.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/i-feel-truly-ashamed-keith-burnett-theresa-mays-trade-mission-india
The difference between May’s words and reality grows I afraid. Can we wind back the clock and start 2016 again!
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Thanks for providing the link: I agree with him
You may find this is mentioned by Sheffield (Central) MP Paul Blomfield in Parliament this week.
To which could be added Bismarck’s contention that “Free trade is a weapon of the strongest nation”. That might be China or America or even Germany but it certainly isn’t Britain.
I’m just hoping Theresa May is not just being set up to be Trump’s poodle the same Blair was with Bush and Iraq.
Trump believes all one of the most unregulated countries in the world (USA) needs is more deregulation and then GDP will expand. Trump needs allies to give his theories credence – step forward and take a bow, UK.
Maybe Trump meeting Farage before any other UK politician was a clever move to force a response of solidarity from the Tories – which Theresa May’s speech certainly seems to be.
I notice Boris also missed a meeting over the weekend with the rest of his EU counterparts to discuss an EU collective response to a Trump presidency.
I sincerely hope I’m making connections that do not exist…