14. On the “Take back control” point, the people who created that slogan also included this quote on their website and designed this graphic which they encouraged people to share widely on social media.

15. While linking to the whole quote which, in context, very clearly suggests we could end up applying the laws of the EU.

It must, therefore, be consistent with their “take back control” campaign.

16. Robbie continues his argument as if trade deals are on a government by government basis (they definitely are not), before declaring we lead on rights, giving maternity rights as an example.

17. But level playing field provisions don’t just the things a country is good at, and covers things like this Paternity leave baseline where we have clearly not “led the way”.

18. That’s before we get to Parental leave, and Robbie may want to consider that a more broad appreciation of policy is what is needed to lead in a field, rather than a straight number comparison in an individual area.

19. Robbie is then keen to push the UK’s great green credentials, and again this ends up on the fridge next to the fish sentence. The UK has been very quick to write the green legislation…he is correct when he writes this…

in the Telegraph…

of all places...

20. But this doesn't fact up to the fact that the EU is hardly likely to ignore a Brexit campaign where the high level of their Environmental standards were disparaged in an attempt to win support.

21. Bringing it back to the fact that trade deals are not government specific, a man tipped as a future Prime Minister has also since said he would have removed a pesticide ban immediately after Brexit.

22. And while the UK may be good at making legislation for the Environment, our interpretation of it hasn’t always been wonderful, as our own Environmental Audit committee discovered.

23. Right, now we get to the meat of Robbie’s “point”: Wanting consistency with how the EU treat other countries. A point that could only be made after hours of painstakingly not researching a damn thing.

24. OK, we're at the bit that our government and Brexit commentators don't seem to have grasped about the EU proposal...

Historically the EU *always* treated each deal as bespoke and were tailored, among other things, relative to distance.

25. Although when the DOHA round started to go bad, the EU began to look at ways to develop their trade in a world where the next multilateral round may not complete. This involved creating “Next Generation” templates, such as the Canada model.

26. Some people think that the Canadian model is CETA (our government apparently), but actually it is defined by a number of policy objectives to create a greater level of market integration.

Higher levels of tariff reduction is one.

27. There are also some technical features. With no DOHA the WTO service agreement was becoming horribly out of date, so the EU moved from a GATS positive list model to a negative list approach with fewer exceptions. Also creating a separate chapter for investment.

28. Improved Intellectual property support. Requirements to comply with conventions such as Rome, Paris, Bern and WIPO, and the EU has even pushed for greater protection in the domestic legislation of its negotiating partner.

29. In Canadian model deals, expect to see legislative harmonisation through the adoption of international standards such as UNECE, where the EU have nearly 50% of the vote and dominate.

30. Finally, opening up public procurement is another major part of the Canadian model achieved through adoption of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

This is what was to be expected when the EU said "The Canadian model".

31. But the Canadian model isn’t the only "Next Generation" model, and at roughly the same time as the Canadian model was being proposed, it began looking at an FTA template to reflect what they call their: ‘Neighbourhood policy’.

32. And this has led to the Ukrainian model which includes dynamic alignment.

A council is created, a commitment is made, and the commitment is realised by decisions of that council.

As you can see, this is the mechanism being proposed by the EU.

33. Now when we look at the deals done and being negotiated with these templates, there is a pattern that emerges. Think Father Ted sat in a caravan with two toy cows.

34. The EUs long term strategy for alignment is pretty obvious, and it’s not great for a country who wants to diverge.

(To be fair to Robbie, he worked in the May government and therefore may be unaware of the concept of a ‘long term strategy’).

35. What is claimed next in the article is a bit scary, because the EU have never offered a zero tariff/zero quota deal to any country, which leaves me wondering if Robbie even understands the term, or how major this offer is.

36. Also, on the fishing point, since the UK 'demanded' long term access to the waters of the only country that ever left the project, it would be hypocritical to take offence now.

37. Robbie then goes on to claim the provisions in other deals for unfair practices are enough, but countervailing; anti-dumping; tariffs, will not work very well with the Northern Ireland protocol.

38. He also seems to forget both sides might have a view of the direction to go, and both those sides have to get it through their respective parliaments.

39. Having seemingly misunderstood zero tariff/zero quota, Robbie now believes level playing field commitments provide competitive advantage, when in fact they do the opposite.

(The clue is in the name).

40. And pushing for Labour and Environmental protection in trade deals has been policy for 16 years. The origins of the relative Environmental neighbourhood policy were the ‘Barcelona declaration’, not ‘competitive advantage’.

41. Ignoring the irony overload that the EU should stop pushing bogus arguments, it’s worth appreciating yet another person, with what appears to be a negative knowledge of trade, threatening the WTO option.

42. He may feel “insulted”, but he is the one who ridiculed himself by using his platform to talk about something he didn’t understand. When you open and close your mouth trying to look like you know what you’re talking about you just look silly.

43. At some point he woke up, and despite having spent most of his life as a television editor and producer, Robbie Gibb honestly believed he was the man to explain what the EU were doing wrong in a trade deal.

Something, incidentally, the EU are actually quite good at.

44. The only unprecedented thing is zero tariff/zero quota. It’s a Canadian deal, tailored with limited neighbourhood policy.

A proposal that could have been predicted by experts as far back as 2005, and had they been published instead nobody needed to be outraged.

/End