#Britain has signed a post-Brexit trade deal with the Pacific islands of #Fiji and #PapuaNewGuinea, as the government rushes to sign as many agreements as possible before 29 March. The Department for International Trade said the agreement would maintain access to goods including sugar and fish imported from the islands 10,000 miles away. Total trade between Britain and the region is worth about £369m a year. Signed by the #internationaltrade secretary, Liam Fox, the deal eliminates all tariffs on all goods imported from Fiji and Papua New Guinea and will gradually remove around 80% of tariffs on UK exports to these countries.

Deals have been signed with nations including #Switzerland, #Chile and the #FaroeIslands. Deals with major trading partners such as #Japan, #Turkey and #SouthKorea are not expected to be ready in time, much to the alarm of business leaders. If there is a #nodealBrexit, trade with those countries would default to World Trade Organization terms.


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UK signs post-Brexit trade deal with Fiji and Papua New Guinea
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/14/uk-signs-post-brexit-trade-deal-with-fiji-and-papua-new-guinea

U.S. President Donald #Trump said #TheresaMay 'didn't listen' to his ideas on how to negotiate #Brexit, and a second vote on EU membership would be 'very unfair to the people that won.' Trump gave the British prime minister 'my ideas how to negotiate' Brexit but 'she didn't listen to that and that’s fine, she has to do what she has to do. I think it could have been negotiated in a different manner. I hate to see everything being ripped apart right now.'


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Donald Trump: Theresa May ‘didn’t listen’ to me on Brexit
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-theresa-may-didnt-listen-to-me-on-brexit/

We now know that on Thursday of next week (Mar 21), Prime Minister #TheresaMay will ask the #EuropeanUnion to extend the #Article50 #Brexit deadline. For how long depends on whether or not her Brexit divorce deal is approved by her own lawmakers before that date. As things stand, her deal looks no closer to passing a vote in parliament. On Thursday (Mar 14), 188 members of her own party voted against the government's motion to delay Brexit.

Only two things of late have carried a majority among lawmakers: opposing a #nodealBrexit and delaying Brexit, which both sound distinctly un-Brexity. And neither is entirely within the United Kingdom's control. But as we drift closer to the big day when the UK is slated to leave (March 29), the Commons is giving us a better idea of what it doesn't want. It doesn't want May's deal, a no deal or to scrap Brexit altogether. It doesn't even want a second referendum, despite the noise made about putting the vote back to the public by some in the political class.


#GlobalEconomy #EconomicOutlook #EconomicGrowth #EconomicSlowdown #EconomicRisk #EconomicPolicy #Economy #BrexitDisruption #UnitedKingdom #Europe #EuropeanEconomy #UKEconomy #PostBrexit #LimboBrexit #BrexitRisks
Brexit has taken a notable step backwards
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/14/uk/brexit-analysis-luke-mcgee-intl-gbr/index.html

#Tariffs will be cut to zero on 87% of imports to the #UK as part of a temporary no-deal plan but prices of some imports including meat, shoes, underpants and cars will go up. In an attempt to prevent a £9bn price shock to business and consumers while 'supporting farmers and producers who have been protected through high #EU tariffs', the government on Wednesday (Mar 13) set out its long-awaited pricing regime in the event that the UK crashes out of the EU on 29 March.

The announcements were made in a last-ditch attempt to concentrate the minds of MPs who will be voting later on Wednesday to reject a #nodealBrexit after Theresa May’s 149-vote defeat. The government described the announcement as a 'modest liberalisation' of tariffs designed to minimise disruption to business and avoid price shock in the supermarkets. The measures also raised immediate concerns about #NorthernIreland being turned into a smugglers’ paradise after it was revealed that tariffs would not apply to goods crossing from the #RepublicofIreland into Northern Ireland.


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UK will cut most tariffs to zero in event of no deal #Brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/13/brexit-tariffs-on-87-of-uk-imports-cut-to-zero-in-temporary-no-deal-plan

A #nodealBrexit would plunge the #UKeconomy into #recession and annual growth will slip below 1% this year for this first time since the financial crisis even if a deal is secured, according to the OECD. The thinktank, which advises 34 of the world’s richest countries, said that even with a smooth #Brexit, the UK economy would slump to 0.8% growth in 2019 from 1.4% in 2018 as Brexit uncertainty and Donald Trump’s trade war with China harmed the #UK’s economic prospects. In November it was forecasting 1.4% growth for the UK this year.

#Toyota’s European boss, Johan van Zyl, said he could not promise British employees’ jobs were safe until the outcome of Brexit was decided. Meanwhile, the #BMW board member Peter Schwarzenbauer, who oversees the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said the firm might be forced to stop making the Mini at its Cowley plant near Oxford.


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No-deal Brexit would plunge UK economy into recession – OECD
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/06/no-deal-brexit-would-plunge-uk-economy-into-recession-oecd