When politicians can spread untruths with little accountability and few electoral consequences, and irreversible rot starts to set into the political system. There’s no greater indicator that this is happening in Britain today than the fact that a man within spitting distance of Downing Street is getting away with deploying utterly misleading information about what might happen in the aftermath of a no-deal brexit, in order to strengthen his leadership bid.
In a leadership debate last Tuesday, Boris Johnson said that if Britain were to crash out of the EU without a deal, we could avoid paying any tariffs on imports from Europe. He claimed that there could be a “Standstill” under article 24 of the world trade organisation is general agreement on tariffs and trade, which would allow the UK and the EU to get around the WTO rule that a country that eliminates tariffs for another country, outside of a comprehensive and mutually agreed free trade agreement, must also do so for all other WTO members.
Johnson’s claims contradict the views of trade experts. The House of Commons library summarises it thus: “Trade law experts have repeatedly and authoritatively dismissed the view that the relevant rule offers an easy solution to UK trade with the EU in the case of ‘No Deal'”. So Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, was entirely correct to reject Johnson’s assertion. If there is no withdrawal agreement when brexit happens, Britain and the EU will have to trade under WTO tariffs, unless they choose to lift tariffs for other countries.
The only way to eliminate tariffs between the UK and the EU after a no deal brexit is either through a time limited interim agreement, which other WTO countries have the power to block – it’s why no wto member is used such an interim agreement since 1995 – or to negotiate a full free trade agreement that would likely take years to agree, not least because, unlike the withdrawal agreement, it would almost certainly require unanimity from EU States.
That Johnson is happy to willfully mislead voters should come as no surprise.