Brexit: What trade deals has the UK done so far?

The chances of an imminent UK-US free trade deal have been played down by President Biden, following talks with Boris Johnson at the White House.

Since Brexit, the UK has had the freedom to pursue its own trade deals.

So far, it has signed trade agreements with 69 countries and one with the EU. The majority are “rollover” deals – copying the terms of deals the UK already had when it was an EU member, rather than creating new benefits.

What is a free trade deal?

A free trade deal aims to encourage trade between countries by making it cheaper. This normally applies to goods but occasionally in services as well.

Making trade cheaper is usually achieved by reducing or eliminating tariffs. These are government taxes or charges for trading goods across borders. A car importer might have to pay a 20% tariff on top of the vehicle’s price, for example, to bring it into a country.

Trade agreements also aim to remove quotas (limits on the amount of goods that can be traded).

Trade can also be made simpler if countries have the same rules, such as the colour of wires in plugs. The closer the rules are, the less likely that goods need to be checked.

IMAGE SOURCE,EPA

image caption The UK-Japan deal was signed in October

Why have tariffs and quotas at all?

While free trade agreements aim to boost trade, too many cheap imports could threaten a country’s manufacturers. This could affect jobs.

For that reason a government might choose to put tariffs on certain things. Tariffs on car imports, for example, could help protect local carmakers from cheaper vehicles coming in from abroad.

What about a US trade deal?

The US is already a significant UK trading partner, accounting for £1 in every £6 of British trade.

However, Joe Biden has played down the chances of an imminent UK-US trade deal.

The government is considering whether to join an existing trade arrangement between the US, Canada and Mexico – known as the USMCA.

But such an arrangement would limit the UK’s ability to sell services. Economists say the overall gains from joining it could be less than 0.1% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Poduct (GDP) – a measurement of the size of the economy.

Some smaller deals have already been reached – such as the export of British beef to the US, after a ban of more 20 years.

What about the UK-Australia deal?

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

image caption British farmers are worried about competing with cheap foreign imports, such as beef

The Australia deal was the first trade agreement negotiated from scratch by the UK since it left EU and was announced on 15 June.

The UK government says the agreement means British products such as cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics would be cheaper to sell to Australia.

However, UK farmers say the deal will mean they will be undercut by cheap imports, which will cost jobs.

But the UK government says the deal will contain protections for farmers, such as a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years.

• UK and Australia in first post-Brexit trade deal
• UK-Australia trade deal: arguments for and against

What does the EU-UK trade deal mean?

After Brexit happened on 31 January 2020, the UK and EU needed to decide the rules for their future trading relationship.

This was important because the EU is the UK’s largest and closest trading partner.

After months of negotiation – which went down to the wire – a UK-EU trade deal came into force on 1 January.

The deal prevented any tariffs and quotas being introduced – which would have made it more expensive to trade.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

image captionThe UK-EU trade deal went down to the wire, with fishing proving to be one of the major sticking points

But not everything is the same as it was before Brexit.

As the UK no longer has to follow EU rules on product standards, new checks have been introduced.

Strict EU laws on animal products also mean some UK products can no longer be exported.

The deal also doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of tariffs in future. Both sides will need to stay close to shared rules in areas like workers’ rights and environmental protection. If either the UK or the EU shift their rules too far, the other side could introduce tariffs.

• What’s in the UK-EU trade deal?

What happened to the trade agreements the UK was already part of?

Before Brexit, the UK was automatically part of any trade deal the EU had negotiated with another country. At the time the UK left, the EU had about 40 trade deals covering more than 70 countries.

The UK has negotiated rollover deals with 66 of these countries.

Any existing EU agreement that was not rolled over ended on 31 December with trade then taking place on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms until a deal could be reached.

Trading on WTO terms means importers face tariffs and extra paperwork. For example, a shipment of bananas arriving at Portsmouth from Ghana was charged a tariff of £17,500 in January. Since then, an agreement with Ghana has been reached.

What about other trade agreements?

The UK signed a deal with Japan in October 2020 – the first that differed from an existing EU deal. The total value of UK-Japan trade (imports and exports) was £31.6bn in 2019, or 2% of the UK’s total trade.

An agreement with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, announced on 4 June, builds on the EU rollover deal that came into force on 1 January. The UK government says it will boost sectors such as digital and cut tariffs on UK farm products such as cheese and meat.

……………………………………………………

Covishield: UK recognises Covid jab after India outcry

The UK government has amended its foreign travel guidance to clarify that the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine is an approved jab.

But it is not clear whether people from India can travel to the UK without having to self-isolate for 10 days.

The UK’s refusal to recognise Covishield had triggered a firestorm of protests in India.

With more than 721 million doses administered so far, Covishield is India’s primary vaccine.

On Tuesday, India described the rule as “discriminatory” and asked the UK to stop requiring fully-vaccinated Indians to self-isolate on arrival.

At present, India is not listed as a country where people are recognised as fully vaccinated even if they’ve had both doses of an approved jab.

So, Indians travelling to Britain have to self-isolate as well as book and take Covid-19 tests before they are allowed to move freely.

Last week, the UK announced new rules – which will come into effect on 4 October – which mandate that travellers from a number of countries arriving in England do not have to self-isolate if they are fully vaccinated. India was not included in that list either.

Prominent Indians called the rule “highly discriminatory”, “racist” and “asinine”, among other things.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had taken up the matter “strongly” with his UK counterpart Liz Truss, according to India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

It is “a discriminatory policy and does impact our citizens travelling to the UK”, Mr Shringla told reporters. He had warned that India might take “reciprocal measures” if the UK did not address India’s concerns.

Such measures generally include India imposing similar restrictions on those arriving from Britain. British travellers to India are thermally screened for fever on arrival, and provide a negative Covid-19 test. They do not need to quarantine.

A leading MP from the main opposition Congress party, Jairam Ramesh, had tweeted that the “bizarre” decision “smacked of racism”.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Others said the move appeared to be a “money making opportunity”.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Shashi Tharoor, author and Congress party MP, said he had cancelled a planned tour to participate in a debate at Cambridge University and to promote his new book in protest against the move.

“Why should Indians be deemed to be lesser breeds than others? It is deeply offensive that fully vaccinated Indians have to quarantine, while others who may have taken the same vaccine in other countries, do not,” Mr Tharoor wrote in The Quint.

“The UK has done its image in India a profound disservice by failing to offer clarity on the question at the heart of the issue.”

About 25% of adults in India have been fully vaccinated so far – an estimated 150 million have received both doses of Covishield at home.

The Serum Institute of India – the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer which makes the jab under licence from AstraZeneca – has also supplied millions of doses to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America under deals signed with various governments and as part of the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.

IMAGE SOURCE,KALIPRASAD

image caption Pune-based Serum Institute of India is the world’s biggest vaccine maker

In July, British PM Boris Johnson said he was “very confident” there “will not prove to be a problem” for travellers who had received an Indian-made Covid jab. Downing Street said the UK’s medicines regulator had shared its data on the jab with its European counterpart. Vaccine expert Prof Adam Finn said the vaccines – AstraZeneca and Covishield – were “exactly the same stuff”. And 23 countries of the European Union have approved the Covishield jab.

“There seems to be no obvious explanation [behind the rule]. Clearly different standards are at play, depending on which part of the world the traveller is coming from,” says Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, an Indian government-backed think-tank.

Did the move have something to do with some reports of fake vaccines? WHO had reported that counterfeit versions of Covishield were seized by authorities in India and Africa between July and August and called for their removal from circulation.

Or does the rule have something to do with India’s “dodgy documentation”, as Mr Tharoor quoted a source as telling him.

In other words, there were concerns about whether the vaccination certificates produced by Indian travellers were genuine or not.

Earlier this month, Check Point, a leading US-based cyber security company, reported that there was a surging black market in vaccine certificates on Telegram in 28 countries. (This followed US President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate announcements.) In India, these certificates were selling for $75 apiece, the firm reported.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in India told the BBC that its government was “working with India to expand recognition of vaccine certification”.

Mr Tharoor says the Indian certificates carry QR codes which can be verified and there “may be some other ways of confirming tangible evidence” of their authenticity. “Making it such a stumbling block reeks of bad faith,” he says.

Meanwhile, Indian travellers bound for the UK are distraught and say it is “ridiculous” to be in quarantine despite being fully vaccinated. Those who have travelled to Britain continue to self-isolate for 10 days and get tests done at their own expense.

“Why are they discriminating against our vaccines? This is all adding more stress to what is an already stressful time and adding to our costs,” says Hema Anand, mother of a student who has travelled to the UK and is now in self-isolation.

……………………………………………………

Coup attempt fails in Sudan – state media

Sudan says it has thwarted an attempted military coup, and arrested “all those involved”.

A government spokesman told state media the coup plotters were linked to the ousted President Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled two years ago.

Earlier reports from the capital Khartoum and nearby Omdurman described intense military activity, and the main bridge across the River Nile was shut.

The road to Khartoum and ports have also been blocked.

The plotters had tried to take over a building housing the state media, AFP news agency reports.

A government involving the military, civilian representatives and protest groups is in place, was established as part of power-sharing agreement after President Bashir was ousted in 2019.

The BBC’s media monitoring service reports that several coup attempts have taken place in Sudan since then.

There has been tension within this Sovereign Council which is supposed to be overseeing a return to civilian rule, and BBC Monitoring adds that some are claiming the security lapses in parts of the country may be an attempt by the military to obstruct the transfer of power back to civilians.

Correspondents say elements within the military are thought to be behind several of days of protests in Port Sudan in the east of the country.

The Sudanese government says the situation in the country is now “under control”.

Video footage shared on Tuesday morning appeared to show armoured vehicles on city streets, but AFP news agency reports that traffic now appears to be flowing smoothly in central Khartoum.

According to Reuters news agency, military spokesman Mohamed Al Faki Suleiman says the interrogation of suspects will soon begin.

Journalist Mohanad Hashim in Khartoum says the government is blaming a group of officers disgruntled by Sudan’s tough economic situation.

The BBC’s Africa correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga says Sudan’s transitional government is under pressure to deliver economic and political reforms amid competing demands from conservative and liberal constituencies.

…………………………………………………………