Information on WTO trading for anyone interested in facts.

[dennis]

[harry]

You don't expect to find facts on the BBC surely?

[whisky-dave]

Are you saying brightfart or whatever site you use to tell you about muslims is better at facts?

[RobertL]

Somewhat to my surprise, the info-map shows that we currently use WTO rules with many of our major non-EU trading countries. USA, Russia, China, Aus, NZ.

But I don't understand why India not included in the WTO colouring. India is a member of the WTO and there is no EU deal with India.

Sadly (inexplicably) the info-map does not show which non-EU countries currently have special deals with the EU (such as canada) which we would lose if we left the EEA.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Often it is.

[tim...]

The international trade department are currently negotiating for the continuation of these deals for when we leave

whether they will all agree is another matter

tim

[rmlaws54]

Yes indeed, but my point was more that it would have been useful to know which non-EU countries currently trade with us via an EU-negotiated agreement. In particular it would be useful to know what proportion of our exports currently go to such countries.

Robert

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not many really.

The EU is a protectionist zone.

Its almost impossible to do a deal with it except on the EUs terms. So only little countries do.

[tim...]

the largest countries on the list are:

Mexico, South Korea and Turkey, soon to be joined by Canada

All of the rest are relatively small insignificant countries, some not even countries. One of the famed 47 states with which the EU has an agreement which will be lost when we leave is RAF Akrotiri - quite who it is who thinks we will stop trading there, I have no idea.

tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

The point has been made, and it is worth making again, that by the time the UK strikes a deal with te EU (10 years +) , it will have struck a deal with all of the little nations the EU has a trade agreement with.

So they are pretty irrelevant.

The only thing that matters is trading with the EU protectionist zone itself.

It is their only card, but it isnt a trump.

[dennis]

The chances are remote as the EU offers far more in trade than the UK so the other party may well be getting much less out of a deal than the one with the EU.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting. So you think - presumably - the UK should open its doors to imports from all duty and tarrif free. If it doesn't, it can be labelled protectionist too.

And oddly your other hero Trump seems to want to protect US industry too.