Post-Brexit trade – a taste of the future

TruePublica Editor: Liam Fox, an ardent Atlantascist, who loved the American right-wing and everything free market was an economic fundamentalist. He did not believe in anything else but markets unshackled from all regulation that stifled profits irrespective of the consequences to public health or safety. His post-Brexit trade vision was a failure when it came to negotiating trade deals. Since Boris Johnson strolled into No10, Britain’s Prime Minister is now being advised by people who are much worse – the pro-business fanatics and radicals on the far-right such as Dominic Cummings, Matthew Elliot and Steve Bannon.

To confirm this level of anti-regulation extremism – Liz Truss has taken over Fox’s role as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. She has already announced plans to create up to 10 “freeports” to boost trade after Britain leaves the EU. “They will onshore enterprise and manufacturing as the gateway to our future prosperity, creating thousands of jobs” – she said.

Barry Gardiner, shadow international trade secretary, echoed criticisms from some of the most respected economists in the country:

“It is a race to the bottom that will have money launderers and tax dodgers rubbing their hands with glee.”

 

The City of London is expected to do more its racing to the bottom in post-Brexit Britain, even though it already launders around £100 billion of dirty cash annually. These money laundering operations benefit no-one in Britain. Obviously, tax is not paid on these highly illegal operations that end with billions being pushed into safe investments such as housing with the shielding against any tax liabilities by off-shoring. Tens of thousands of apartments and houses all over the country, mainly in the cities, are linked directly to dirty money – exacerbating the housing crisis for ordinary citizens.

Campaigners have already expressed deep concern about the ability of Liz Truss to negotiate trade deals in the interests of people or the environment, fearing she will collude with a Trump administration to give US multinationals more power over British society.

Truss is a leading proponent of what they call ‘economic liberalisation and deregulation’, most particularly in the area of Big Tech. Can you imagine the likes of search engines and social media giants having the type of freedom they are currently fighting for in the courts of practically every democratic country in the world? Big Tech in the western world is more or less accepted as being a clan called G+MAFIA. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Apple all have one thing in common. They are all American. They have more common features – they all collude with the American war-machine, are all serial tax-dodgers and are exploitative employers around the world.

These are the new principles by which the current British government is looking to create a safe business environment for, whilst reducing even further their tax contribution to the country – and for it to go unchallenged. Politicians will all be in their pockets much as they are in America. It’s what happens when you invite them in unhindered. They bear gifts and offer up their products to distort the public narrative. They are not the good guys. This is not a free market when dominated by half a dozen players.

 

Truss authored Britannia Unchained in 2012 along with new cabinet colleagues Priti Patel and Dominic Raab and has described Britain as “a nation of Airbnb-ing, Deliveroo-eating, Uber-riding freedom fighters”.

Truss thinks that the gig economy is to be applauded and encouraged even though serious allegations of workers being exploited litter the headlines. She wants to boost this form of employment noted for its almost complete lack of oversight for the whole sector. But some would say that’s just the price to be paid for what they call ‘freedom’. It’s only free for those doing the exploiting.”

Truss has also said some incredibly dangerous things in pursuit of her version of ‘liberalisation’ of the markets. For instance, she said that new restrictions against selling medium-rare burgers, (referring to new regulations on cooking burgers created by the Food Standards Agency, which are intended to stop people ingesting bacteria like E. coli.) are a bad thing, The example she gave was that cooking times are lower in the USA. She forgot to mention the annual per capita food poisoning rate in America is 10 times greater than in the UK – of course.

I’ve lived in a country dominated by the principles of the American free-market. Food producers make packaging on all sorts of products look very European. They even put French and Italian words or names on their labelling giving the impression of quality produce emanating from countries with proper safeguards. It is impossible to find out where the meat really comes from and you have to be careful about cheese that is frankly named, looks like and tastes a bit like an original. In reality, it’s just a legalised form of counterfeit food in unregulated markets. Almost universally, there is no labelling system to inform the consumer of its proper origin. I won’t go on but you get the picture.

The USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP), the federal agency in charge of overseeing the U.S. organic market is now described in America itself as a ‘feckless bureaucracy’ in an industry that now boasts one of biggest consumer scams in decades by misleading consumers to believe their products are “local” or indeed anything like organically produced. Numerous accusations are banded around that supposed locally grown organic food products are in fact just inferior quality foreign-produced with no certification of origin let alone how it was grown. This is the state of the food supply in America – nothing can be trusted.

 

Global Justice Now has warned today that these post-Brexit policies are already being heavily pushed in trade talks with the US and could lead to a post-Brexit ‘bonfire of regulations’ in a future UK-US trade deal.

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:
“Liz Truss has made her name by proposing sweeping deregulation and liberation to the British economy – from housing to the workplace, from what we eat to how big business can ignore our privacy. Truss believes in letting big business do what it wants, when it wants, and we as ordinary citizens simply have to adapt. We are deeply concerned that Truss could achieve some of these objectives by writing them into trade deals, which in turn would create massive additional poverty, as well as fuelling climate change and inequality in Britain.

“We know from recent leaks (2) that the US administration is already pushing for lower food standards, higher medicine prices and against windfall taxes on Big Tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Uber. We need a trade secretary who can stand up to Trump, not one who colludes with him to give big business whatever they want of the British economy. Such provisions in trade deals could also prove disastrous for developing countries, where giving British big business more power can literally mean life or death for whole sections of their economies. They will also be fundamental in deciding whether post-Brexit Britain is closer to a European or American version of regulation.

“These should be questions which are answered democratically, but sadly May’s government failed to give parliament any meaningful role in trade deals. That means these negotiations will be hidden from public view, with parliament unable to stop a trade deal once it is finalised. What’s more, such deals have the authority of international law. This is dangerous territory and we urge all parliamentarians to demand full transparency and accountability for British trade policy after Brexit.”

 

 

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