Most Favoured Nation: Christmas Trade Quiz
I can only apologise for the state of these questions. Also UK-Aus and some other things.
Welcome to the Christmas edition of Most Favoured Nation. Which in practice means one thing and one thing only: a trade-themed Christmas quiz.
Answers can be submitted in the comments, on twitter or by email. And the winner(s) might get something … let’s see how I feel.
Anyhow, let’s get going.
1. What is the HS code of the greatest of all Christmas foods, a mince pie?
2. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and his fellow reindeer will be subject to new animal health controls when entering the UK this Christmas Eve. Must they …
a. pre-notify their intention to arrive in the UK, be accompanied by a health certificate, and declare themselves at a border control post, where they will be subject to document checks, identity checks and physical inspection
b. pre-notify their intention to arrive in the UK and be accompanied by a health certificate;
c. be accompanied by a qualified vet; or
d. Enter via Ireland into Northern Ireland, and then on into the rest of the UK hassle-free?
3. In the hit children’s film Frozen, the kingdom of Arendelle dominated regional trade in which essential commodity?
4. At the beginning of 2021 the UK introduced new VAT rules for e-commerce. Foreign sellers, such as Father Christmas, sending some goods to the UK now need to register to for UK VAT, and charge it at the point of sale. These rules apply to a foreign seller exporting goods to the UK valued at
a. Over £1000
b. Under £135
c. Over £135
d. Under £1000
5. The full text of EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement was published on Christmas Day, 2020. How many times does the word ‘present’ appear in the agreement?
a. 29
b. 283
c. 65
d. 112
I’m so very sorry. I will announce the winner … one day.
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Tim Tams for Christmas
Woo! The UK and Australia have finally finalised the deal they agreed in principle at the beginning of the summer. I’m not sure how much more I have to say about this other than well done!
All in all, by most accounts, a bit of a bruising, but formative, experience for the British negotiators. After spending the first half of the year locked in (zoom breakout) rooms with their Australian counterparts, Boris walked into a (real) room with the Australian PM, ignored DIT’s instructions, and said yes to pretty much everything so as to bank the political win before the summer holidays.
The UK (and DEFRA in particular), then spent the rest of the year trying to claw back a little bit of market access by quibbling over the exact metric used to measure meat weight. According to Emilio at Politico this was resolved by the UK agreeing to the Australian interpretation [but tbc].
But what if, and hear me out, the PM got this right?
Once you’ve decided to remove pretty much all tariffs on food (other than on long-grained milled rice [don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you]), you know that there is going to be some backlash from domestic farmers. You also know that fiddling around will the specific levels of transitional tariff-rate quotas or the like isn’t going to make the farmers like you again. So you may as well pull the plaster off, suck up the pain, and revel in your wider-victory rather than dragging it out.
I suppose the problem is that other countries negotiating with the UK will now hold out on tricky issues assuming that if they can get the PM into the room he might just say yes to everything. There’s also a general argument against rushing things [FWIW, I think the UK could have got slightly more on climate, for example, if it wasn’t in such a hurry].
But yeah … perhaps the PM judged this one correctly?
International procurement instrument
Nine years after it was first proposed, the EU is one step closer to adding a new stick to its trade defence arsenal. On 14 December the European Parliament adopted its position on the international procurement instrument, a tool that would allow the EU to restrict access to its own procurement market in the event its own companies were being discriminated against abroad. We now enter the so-called trialogue phase of negotiations – between the European Commission, European Parliament and Council – to hash out a joint position. All going well, this could emerge early next year.
What with the CBAM, the foreign subsidies rules, the anti-coercion instrument and this … one might think the EU is gearing up for something.
Chart of the week
Lucian Cernat has created this “cardiogram” of EU trade and technology and I’m not quite sure what it is telling me but I also can’t stop looking at it.
The TRA tries again
The UK’s new trade remedies authority has, through no fault of its own, had a rough year. Its review of steel safeguard measures, and suggestion that most of them should be dropped for being unjustified, created a minor political kerfuffle leading to the TRA being overruled by ministers, and its mandate called into question.
Anyhow, the TRA has just published its initial findings of a transition review [the UK has to review all of the trade defence measures it inherited from the EU to make sure they are still appropriate] into imported biodiesel.
It proposes that …
“existing measures on imports of FAME biodiesel are kept, but that measures on imports of HVO biodiesel are removed. The TRA’s provisional findings, contained in the Statements of Essential Facts, would mean that the UK’s FAME production industry continued to be protected from dumped and subsidised biodiesel from the USA, including where consigned through Canada, but that HVO from these countries could be imported to the benefit of the UK’s agricultural and transport industries, as well as users of oil fired heating.”
If you disagree with this, you have 30 days as of two days ago to tell the TRA.
Most Favoured Nation is taking a break for Christmas, but will be back in the New Year. Thanks for all of your support and see you soon!
Best,
Sam