Who's laughing now?
It will, of course, get very little publicity here but the EU has signed a trade deal with New Zealand. You know, that country on the other side of the world which the UK had to leave the EU to do a trade deal with.
I have not yet read all the details but since the UK’s deal with NZ was negotiated in a panic by Liz Truss and Boris Johnson I am going to guess that the EU got a better deal than the UK did.
I think that is a pretty safe bet, after all going into negotiations in a hurry, desperately telling everyone that you must have a deal and then signing the first thing put on the table is not normally the way to get the best deal.
I doubt very much if the EU has sold its agricultural sector down the river, for a couple of days of cheap headlines and given its huge economic heft, it would have been in an excellent position to get a good deal. New Zealand needed the EU much more than the EU needed NZ.
I wonder if NZTV will be running stories which laugh at the stupidity of Brussels and interview the betrayed farmers of Europe? Who knows?
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media