I have updated my annual graph below of our trade deficit with the EU and rest of the world. You may remember that last time it looked as though the deficit was narrowing. Was this some kind of Brexit dividend or just the effects of Covid? It was not clear.
But now look what’s happened. OMG! Wow! It’s as bad as ever! Quite clearly:-
1. The Tory TCA has FAILED, and
2. Those bastards in Brussels are still screwing us.
Look at the divergence which started in 2000, well before Brexit. How could that have come about? It can’t be us as we are common to both trends. It HAS to be Brussels. Deliberately, maliciously, persistently, albeit surrepticiously, they have been blocking our exports and our dozy officials in Whitehall haven’t even noticed or raised the alarm. I will leave you to guess their motives!
Now if we had a No Deal Brexit that sort of discrimination would be illegal under the WTO’s most favoured nation principle and we would be entitled to ‘countervailing measures’. But a bilateral trade agreement overrides that.
It’s time to give the EU a bloody nose by demanding countevailing measures and scrapping the TTCA. We are being played. Don’t fall for it.
John Poynton 