The Governor of the Bank of England tells us we cannot escape tariffs by offering to negotiate a free  trade agreement. If the EU agrees to free trade talks as we leave the EU then we can.

Gatt is a Treaty designed to promote ever freer trade. Article 24 allows members of Gatt – now the WTO – to negotiate free trade agreements with each other that go further than the trade liberalisation and tariff reduction offered to all other members by the states concerned. The two states must not seek to raise barriers with others as a result of proposing a Free Trade Agreement between themselves. The aim   “should be to facilitate trade between the constituent territories and not to raise barriers to the trade of other contracting parties with such countries”

The only requirement to gain GATT approval for having no tariffs on each other’s trade whilst in negotiation is that the two states or customs unions must agree ” a plan and a schedule for the foundation of such a free trade area within a reasonable length of time”.

On Thursday night Boris came to dinner with Conservatives in the mid Berkshire area at a function organised by Reading West Conservatives and held in the Wokingham constituency.

He gave a wide ranging speech full of positives for our future once out of the EU which was well received by the Conservative members present from several local constituencies. He is keen to see better education from higher per pupil funding, faster broadband and better roads and railway investments.

I have tweeted about this today and will write a considered piece for tomorrow.

https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/

As predicted the Conservative party has a clear choice to make between the two remaining leadership contenders.

I am pleased it is Mr Hunt and not Mr Gove in the final. If it had been Mr Gove the media would have had a month of re running all that Mr Gove said and did to stop Mr Johnson running the previous time,  trying to make it into a bitter personal feud whatever the candidates wanted. This  would have got in  the way of a serious debate about the future of our country and its democracy.

The Johnson campaign made clear yesterday to supporters like me  it did not want Johnson voters voting tactically to influence who was second. I continued to vote for Boris.

https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/

The media and the Remain MPs are stuck in their own rhetorical canyon, ignoring the wider public and trying to prevent intelligent debate about the opportunities for the UK once liberated from the EU. The BBC is particularly bad. Either it does not invite someone on who wants to put a positive case for the decision of the voters on the EU, or it interrupts and hectors us  around the tired and extreme language of the Remain campaign. Voters did not believe  the idea of the cliff edge or the catacylsm, and  rejected the forecasts of the economic damage Remain wrongly put out  3 years ago. Despite this the media and their chosen MPs and business interlocuters go on as if it were true and as if they did not lose the vote on his topic. The shambles of a Conservative  leadership debate they created has been roundly condemned. The BBC has yet to explain its excessive puffing of Mr Stewart’s candidature who came well below three of the other candidates in each round he fought and was never going to get many MP votes given his absurd position on the EU issue. Why did the BBC suggest he was the likely opponent of Boris when he ended with just 27 votes out of a maximum 313.

I have never once heard a BBC interviewer ask a Remain MP or advocate why they want to giveaway £39bn we do not owe. It is a rare interview indeed which asks anyone about how we might spend all that money if we do not send it to the EU. The topic on our borders is always threats to EU citizens living in the UK where the government has always been clear they can stay. Rarely are we asked about what a globally fair UK migration policy would look like. Interviews are conducted on trade and tariffs without any understanding that the UK will decide how big a tariff to impose on imports, and with no knowledge that the UK has already set out a low tariff schedule for exit. There are no interviews with farmers to explore how much more of our food we can grow at home if tariffs are placed  on to continental produce. There are no explorations of what joining the TPP free trade area might mean for the UK. We are told that any trade deal with the US would mean compulsory eating of chlorine washed chicken, as if we had to agree to its entry and then had to buy it! There is no mention of chlorine in our domestic water  or chlorine washed EU salads.

Meanwhile the Leave majority just shouts back “Get on with it.” The media who seek to thwart us will lose more audience as a result of their craven servitude to the EU government. The more they shove out the Remain and EU spin lines, the more many voters think they do not speak for them. If they want to show they are better edited and disciplined than social media, they need to return to being fair and balanced, and to accept there are many sensible people saying there  is a great future for the UK outside the EU, as we voted for.