Prolong The Chaos!

Gina Miller has set up a new site called End The Chaos “to give people the facts on Brexit” or somesuch slogan.

I dutifully watched the first video,which purports to explain WTO Rules. It states that if the UK chooses to trade under WTO rules it will have to impose a standard level of tariffs on imports and it will have equal and opposite tariffs imposed on exports from it.

Which is of course complete nonsense and lies from start to finish.

Fullfact.org explains it correctly. A country which is a member of the WTO can impose whatever import tariffs it likes, (subject to WTO overall upper limits, which the WTO is gradually reducing).

The actual WTO rule is that a WTO member must apply its tariffs equally to imports from all other countries. There’s an exception if a country is also in a regional free trade area, in which case a country is allowed two tiers – a lower tier for imports from members of that FTA and a higher tier for imports from outside. (Quite where bilateral free trade agreements fit into this is anybody’s guess).

What tariffs other countries or FTAs choose to impose on exports from the UK is entirely up to the other countries or FTAs.