Kemi Badenoch was out today, before April fools, trying to sell the UK fools gold.
She appeared on Sky News singing the praises of the CPTPP , as the UK has signed a deal to join a trade pact with several countries in Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia.
She said: “It’s the first time we’ve joined a bloc in about 50 years, there’s strength in numbers…”
Yep you heard that right!
Chris Bryant summed it up: “This would be funny if it werenโt so depressingly predictable. Orwell called it doublethink when you spout things that you have half persuaded yourself you believe (but the truth keeps nagging away at you).”
What about palm oil, can we get lower tariffs and ruin even more of the earth’s rainforests?
Yes we can according to Kemi, she said: “Yes.. moving the tariff from 2% to 0% won’t cause deforestation… palm oil is a great product, it’s not illegal.”
What is the GDP gain?
Well, the loss from Brexit was 4% and the gain from the CPTPP?
A pitiful 0.08%.
As the implausible blog wrote: “We already had deals with 9 of the 11 CPTPP countries. And we left the EU where we were rule makers and have joined CPTPP where we are rule takers. The British people have been conned.”
The UK already had deals with the majority of these nations as part of its EU membership which have been carried over.
Since Brexit, the UK has added Australia and New Zealand to its trade deal tally.
It was just Brunei and Malaysia left that the UK didn’t have a deal with and between them those two account for less than 0.5% of the total of UK trade.
What did the BBC global trade correspondent make of it? Not much.
Dharshini David said: “According to the government’s own estimates the CPTPP deal will mean a gain of 8p for for every ยฃ100 of income… this is not a get rich quick scheme when it comes to the economic gains.”
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