| Canadian-EU Trade Deal 10:31 - Feb 5 with 699 views | itfcjoe |
So what’s it actually like trying to negotiate a trade deal with Brussels – and can it really be done in less than a year? Playbook spoke to Andrew MacDougall, who was comms chief for Canadian PM Stephen Harper throughout seven long years of trade talks with the EU before the final CETA deal was done. MacDougall is now based in London and works at political comms firm Trafalgar Strategy. He tells Playbook that Britain looks under-prepared, under-skilled and badly short on time for what’s coming down the track. Here are his five lessons …
Lesson 1 – Consult widely:
“Harper got every political premier of different political stripes [on board], and industry associations – there were over 200 consultations with cattle men, pork producers, fish people, you name it, the government went and talked to them. And we went into the negotiation with political support and trade support. We had all the red lines and knew exactly where we could and couldn’t go, and then we went into the room with the EU and said this is what we’d like to do. You contrast that with the way Britain has done it … Scotland obviously hates it, Northern Ireland has a Withdrawal Agreement that no party supports … And you have industry saying: ‘well, we just got a call yesterday from somebody in the government saying let’s think about what we want to do.’ In Canada it took years getting all that together before we went into the room.”
Lesson 2 – Get some experience:
“We knew before we tried to bite off something as ambitious as the EU trade deal that we had to get some warm-up runs in there. It’s doesn’t matter how good a striker you are, you can’t just expect to come on the pitch stone cold and just bend it in the top [corner]. You have to go out there and train a bit.” MacDougall says Canada prepared for the EU talks by renegotiating several existing trade deals with smaller nations. “And then it meant that by the time we came to TTIP, we had a negotiating team that had been through 20 rounds with the EU and really gotten up to speed. You compare that with Britain – you’ve outsourced trade policy now for 40 years to the EU. You’re not going to bring that all back [instantly].”
Lesson 3 – EU strategy:
“The great trick of the EU was the closer you got … there was always somebody else at the last minute who would put up their hand. The Irish, at one point their beef farmers had a ‘sudden realization’ that the trade deal on their side was going to involve concessions, so they kicked up a fuss. And even after the political agreement, famously the Walloons in Belgium put their hands up and said you can’t get it passed until some sub-national government in Belgium says so … They got another four pages added. So you see the EU use their structure as a negotiating tool to lever certain issues. It certainly felt like [a strategy]. ”
Lesson 4 – Expect a tough time:
“They’ve negotiated as a bloc for a long time. All I can tell you is that when our negotiators from Canada came back from rounds with them, they didn’t look like they’d been on vacation. They had been through the wringer. But at the end of the day Canada had a clear idea of what it wanted; a clear idea of its red lines; and if it moved from those red lines it did so with the full buy-in of the stakeholders back home, with the explanation that this was done so we could secure something else. Ultimately that is why good communication in trade deals is so important. People know what they’re getting, what they’re not getting and why – so people feel they understand why this has happened.”
Lesson 5 – Don’t rush it:
“Eleven months sounds like a long time to ordinary people – but in trade negotiations it’s not even one innings. It is barely the time you’d figure out what you want in a trade negotiations – not do the actual entire negotiation … [The EU-Canada deal] was far less ambitious, and it’s been 10 years and counting. The idea that 11 months is bags of time is not borne out by history. It will be unprecedented if the U.K. can pull this off, thread the needle and then pull the EU’s pants down … They deserve all the plaudits in the world if they do that. That’s not to say it can’t happen, but it’s probably not likely.” |  |
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| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 10:39 - Feb 5 with 663 views | HARRY10 |
I suspect those behind brexit know what the US wants, and that is not to have their produce excluded from the UK by having the UK stick to EU food safety standards.
So the thought has to be that the UK makes it almost impossible to retain those standards so as to be 'forced to leave' without a deal ie bend over an accept whatever the US dictates.
The irony being that were it France to be leaving I can only imagine how the right winf press and the halfwitted brexiteers would be howling and shrieking.
"Those bloody frogs want us to have to buy their unsafe food. Send the stuff over here with no labels to let us know where it originally came from or what is in it... not ruddy likely Pierre " |  | | |
| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 10:41 - Feb 5 with 655 views | jaykay |
don't worry , we don,t need experts telling us how to do anything. |  |
| forensic experts say footers and spruces fingerprints were not found at the scene after the weekends rows |
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| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 10:46 - Feb 5 with 640 views | chicoazul |
I think the Trade Deal is going to be pretty straight forward TBH. We are already aligned in just about every way so most technical work in that regard is done. The EU will say we want this and the idiots who run our country will eventually say fine, whatever, and roll over as long as they get a few concessions on stuff the EU don't really care much about. |  |
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| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 10:48 - Feb 5 with 625 views | Darth_Koont |
Great insight there.
I think the lack of domestic political and trade support is the real clincher. May had the same lack of support when her red lines were nothing like what the consensus could approve let alone what individual stakeholders could put up with.
This government is doing the same. It won't gather support and try to understand who it's representing in these negotiations. And, as surely as night follows day, it will use its own red lines for party political purposes or to blame the EU, Sturgeon, Labour, LibDems, whoever else when it naturally goes t!ts up.
Our lack of negotiation experience, how the EU holds all the cards and the stupidly optimistic timeframe are secondary to that. Even when each on their own would put Johnson's government way out of their depth.
The good news is that now the cheap posturing is over and Brexit is finally beginning we may see the already inescapable truths actually have an effect. |  |
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| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 11:04 - Feb 5 with 593 views | HARRY10 |
| Canadian-EU Trade Deal on 10:46 - Feb 5 by chicoazul |
I think the Trade Deal is going to be pretty straight forward TBH. We are already aligned in just about every way so most technical work in that regard is done. The EU will say we want this and the idiots who run our country will eventually say fine, whatever, and roll over as long as they get a few concessions on stuff the EU don't really care much about. |
Unfortunately that alignment runs pretty much counter to what the US is demanding, and seeing it was there that most of the funding for brexit came from, so there is little chance of that alignment being retained.
And it is far, far more ranging than simply alignment - if only that should the EU change it's regulation on something then does the UK keep in line, whereby being a rule taker with no say, or diverge thus affecting trade ?
That this is all falling apart so quickly is a recognition that what was being peddled up to the GE was extremely misleading, or bluntly lies.
The real question now is how this will be sold to the brexit numpties. How all they were told is not going to happen, They may be gullible, but surely not this far ? | | | |
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