There was a story
in yesterday’s Western Mail about discussions between Liam Fox and Japan, which
reported that Japan has promised to back the UK’s bid for membership of the
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
after Brexit. (I haven’t been able to
trace an online version of the story in the Western Mail itself, but it appears
to be a syndicated story from an agency, because the same story
with the same wording also appeared in the Daily Express.)
It’s clear that
Fox, like most of the Brexiteers, believes that it is better to have an agreement with countries a long way away than one with those
nearest to us, as though that can somehow make up for the loss of opting out of the more local agreement. It completely
ignores the gravity model
of trade, but that should not surprise us given that Fox’s own cabinet career
has itself been remarkably resistant to the normal rules of gravity.
As the New Zealand
Trade Minister explained in this
report, one of the drivers for the agreement is that “CPTPP has become more important because of the growing threats to the
effective operation of the World Trade Organization rules”, although I’m
sure that isn’t quite what Fox and the rest of the Brexiteers have been telling
us about the WTO option.
However, it was
the final paragraph of the Western Mail/ Daily Express report which really
struck me:
“Eliminating tariffs and quotas between
members and involving mutual recognition of regulations and rules on
cross-border investment, CPTPP is seen as a swifter and more effective
alternative to forging separate trade deals with individual member states.”
Now there’s a
vision. A free trade area encompassing
some of the world’s biggest economies coming together to agree a common set of regulations
and rules, which will apply to an increasing range of goods and services over
time instead of a patchwork of individual bilateral agreements. It’s such a brilliant idea, I can’t think why no
one has thought of it before. It’s a
pity that there’s nothing similar closer to home, in Europe say, that we could
join instead of going half way round the world and pretending to be on the Pacific
Coast. Oh, hold on a minute…
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