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Thankfully, voters are wiser than Emily Thornberry.
Guido was intrigued to see Emily Thornberry remain in post as Starmer’s shadow trade secretary during Sunday’s reshuffle, given the sheer number of policy blunders she’s made in situ. The latest is over officials’ confirmation that there are clauses in recent post-Brexit trade agreements with 23 different countries that “specifically prohibit manufacturers in freeport-type zones” from enjoying the full benefits. Thornberry leapt on the news, attacking Liz Truss for making a “catastrophic blunder”. A brave attack given she voted against freeports entirely in March…
Thornberry and the FT have now been taken to task by trade expert Dr Anna Jerzewska, the director of Trade & Borders, accusing them of a “profound misunderstanding of what free ports do”, pointing out these provisions are standard and basic to how freeports work. It is standard practice not to be able to combine production in a freeport with the benefits of a free trade agreement.
Businesses get a choice of either benefiting from duty exemption or from the free trade deals, so essentially have to choose which tax swerve to benefit from. So in freeports a company can trade goods that do not comply with the appropriate rules of origin and are therefore exempt from the TCA.