Kemi Badenoch says the government’s new post-Brexit trade deal with Asia-Pacific countries must be hard for Labour to swallow.
Speaking in parliament, the trade secretary said: “It must be really, really difficult to sit there while we have just agreed this fantastic trade deal.
“Looks like the Labour front bench has been sucking on lemons!”
Last month, Badenoch downplayed estimates pertaining to the economic impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) deal, saying joining the trade bloc is “about the potential for growth tomorrow”.
But according to new estimates, even the paltry 0.08 per cent figure could be over-hyped!
Hidden in the small print of a technical document published by the Department for International Trade is a disclosure that suggests calculations could have been intentionally juiced up to make the deal sound more appealing.
The document states that officials could not employ their usual approach to calculating the GDP benefits of a deal, known as a “Melitz-style model”, because there were too many unknown variables.
Instead, the department used a so-called “Armington-style” model to get the number for CPTPP, which the document notes tend to produce higher GDP figures “for a given free trade agreement”.
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