I do not care that George Soros is Jewish. I care that he is not British. In similar vein, and retweeted to me and others by the redoutable Lexiteer John Hendy QC, comes this:
There are two facts that everyone should know about the
UK’s trade policy as we prepare to leave the EU. The first is that modern trade
agreements have a huge impact – for good and for bad – on many areas of life
including jobs, the environment, health, development, food and
inequality. The second is that under current rules, the UK government
has unchecked powers to negotiate and sign trade agreements.
The government has the power to: decide who to start
negotiations with; set its own priorities and objectives for these
negotiations; conduct negotiations, often in secret; and conclude and sign the
eventual deal. There are no procedures in place to ensure trade
negotiations are accountable to Parliament or the public.
Incredibly, MPs
have no powers to scrutinise ongoing negotiations and provide direction. The
public has no right of input or to know what is being done. Parliament is
eventually asked to ratify the agreed final deal, but in practice the procedure
is a nominal one and MPs are not even guaranteed a vote on whether to approve
or reject trade deals.
The UK has not been responsible for trade policy for 40
years, so it is understandable that our procedure for negotiating and ratifying
trade agreements needs some reform. Yet, to date, the government has not taken
steps to update this procedure.
In November 2017, the government introduced a Trade Bill to
enable its independent trade policy after Brexit. This is a key piece of
legislation and provided a clear opportunity for the government to
demonstrate its commitment to transparency and democracy in
trade policy. However, at present the Bill lacks any provision to make trade
policy accountable to Parliament.
What is TJM calling
for?
TJM is calling for:
1. The right of parliament to set a thorough mandate to
govern each trade negotiation, with a remit for the devolved administrations
2. The right of the public to be consulted as part of
setting that mandate
3. Full transparency in negotiations
4. The right of parliament to amend and to reject trade
deals, with full debates and scrutiny guaranteed and a remit for the devolved
administrations
5. The right of parliament to review trade deals and
withdraw from them in a timely manner
Take action
Take action for trade democracy by supporting TJM's
members and partners’ actions:
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