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More suggestions from Australia and New Zealand that as was suspected Liz Truss is very amaterishly trying to play them off each other. Which I first heard last year from a negotiator for one of these countries. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/21/bizarre-uk-comments-about-australias-trade-minister-a-serious-setback-to-talks?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Apparently UK government ministers haven't realised that other countries might compare notes, particularly when they are involved in three separate negotiations with the UK - at the WTO, for our accession to CPTPP, and bilaterally. https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/agribusiness/view/trade-talks-get-dirty
As has previously been noted it is the UK that has the reputation for settling for a trade deal at pretty much any cost after our shambolic negotiations with the EU involving threats all of which we backed away from. Other countries have rather more experience.
Even after UK exporters are suffering from the inadequacies of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU we are still deep in negotiations with other countries withour clear negotiating objectives beyond good headlines - and it shows.
Positive media headlines should not be the main success criteria for trade treaties making binding commitments, but... we're clearly intent on doing things differently.
Incidentally publicly undermining your counterparts in trade talks doesn't make it terribly easy for them to conclude deals unless they subsequently win on absolutely everything. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-21/uk-chair-fight-criticised-canberra-trade-talks/100085830
(today starts to remind me of the day the Department for International Trade sent soy sauce viral through similarly inept communications)
