Hard cheese: Liz Truss walked away from trade talks over stilton
new
Oliver Wright, Policy Editor
Tuesday August 11 2020, 12.00pm, The Times
Liz Truss speaks to Toshimitsu Motegi as they begin negotiations in June on a free trade agreement
Liz Truss speaks to Toshimitsu Motegi as they begin negotiations in June on a free trade agreement
PA
Share
Save
If anyone was in any doubt that trade deals are just as much about politics as they are about trade then the curious case of the stilton “wedge” should disabuse them.
It was revealed today that the trade secretary Liz Truss walked away from signing a historic post-Brexit trade deal with Japan last week in support of a British cheese worth about 0.007 per cent of UK exports to the country.
Ms Truss had been hoping to announce the symbolic deal to protect £14.8 billion of UK exports to Japan following two days of negotiations with the country’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi.
But Mr Motegi flew back to Tokyo on Friday with no deal in place after Ms Truss demanded better terms for stilton producers than the deal Britain had as part of its membership of the EU, the Financial Times reported.
The talks will continue at an official level in an attempt to resolve the differences and have an agreement ratified before the completion of the transition period at the end of this year.
Taking a stand over an export to Japan that is only worth around £100,000 a year might seem curious. But from the UK side — needing a political “win” that can be sold easily to the British public — stilton is a good battle to pick.
Under the existing EU deal with Japan, from which Britain benefits, Japanese tariffs of 29 per cent on hard cheeses such as cheddar will be phased out to zero by 2033.
But for other cheeses, such as “blue-veined” stilton, only a quota of exports would be tariff free.
The UK wanted to improve on those terms to demonstrate that the government could negotiate a bespoke deal that served British interests — even if the potential gain was small in economic terms.
But Japan has long argued that it cannot give Britain a better deal than that agreed with the EU, whose 27 nations have a population almost seven times bigger than the UK’s.
There is also concern on the Japanese side that any concessions made to the UK could trigger the reopening of the EU deal as Brussels demands the same access for its soft-blue cheese exports.
Ms Truss has long advocated British cheese’s place in international markets.
She trended on social media in 2014 after a speech to the Conservative party conference in which she said: “We import two thirds of our cheese: that is a disgrace!”
Today her department did not deny that stilton had become an issue in the talks but said it could not comment on negotiations that were continuing.
According to UK government figures, a “modelled” trade deal with Japan might add 0.07 per cent to Britain’s GDP in the long term, compared with the loss of 5 per cent of GDP growth associated with the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.
-----------------------------------------------
Oh well, we didn't need a deal with Japan anyway. Let's only deal with countries that ARE prepared to give us better terms than they give to the EU - anyone know which countries those are btw...?