Liz Truss kicked up a stink over Stilton in the Japanese trade talks – our 8 favourite comments
Trade talks between the UK and Japan have reached a stalemate over Stilton.
Trade Secretary Liz Truss wants Japan to give the UK better terms on blue cheeses than it has agreed with the EU’s 27 countries.
According to the FT, the deal the UK hopes for would raise GDP by 0.007 per cent, which would slightly alleviate the projected 5 per cent loss from leaving the EU.
If the UK-Japanese talks fail, World Trade Organisation tariffs would become the default in January 2021, leaving the UK worse off.
Journalist and trade expert, Sarah Hurst, assessed the situation.
Brexit is trying to sell Stilton to the Japanese because we made it harder to sell it to Europeans.
— Sarah Hurst (@Life_Disrupted) August 11, 2020
Cheese is an odd – and smelly – hill on which to let a trade deal die.
Here’s what Twitter had to say about it all.
1.
If everyone in the UK ate 0.15g of Stilton each (about the same weight as 5 raindrops) that would add up to more blue cheese than Japan bought from the UK in the whole of last year.
And yet Liz Truss is willing to blow up the prospect of a trade deal over that?
— Edwin Hayward 🦄 🗡 (@uk_domain_names) August 11, 2020
2.
The Stilton situation reveals what we always feared – that Liz Truss is in the pocket of Big Cheese. She must be removed from office before she gives the Chinese our fishing rights in exchange for getting Dairylea on the school lunch menu in Shandong. pic.twitter.com/k8O2tdOuwd
— Gpoptosis (@Gpoptosis) August 11, 2020
3.
don’t worry guys, Liz Truss is confident we’ll sell £102,000 of Stilton to Japan pic.twitter.com/TxEj0TQhi8
— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) August 11, 2020
4.
2016:
“It’s all about blue passports”2020:
“It’s all about blue stilton”https://t.co/GlaIZL4Zoj— David Schneider (@davidschneider) August 11, 2020
5.
Liz Truss’s trade deal with Japan is floundering over Stilton. Pale white, with thin blue veins and a distinctive aroma, Liz Truss is the Secretary of State for International Trade
— Unnamed Insider (@Unnamedinsider) August 11, 2020
6.
LIZ TRUSS: [furiously] well tell the Japanese that they'd better start liking Stilton or they can make their fucking cars in their own country pic.twitter.com/ICvqMmL87X
— Gpoptosis (@Gpoptosis) August 11, 2020
7.
What is it with Truss and cheese ? She’s got herself in a pickle over Stilton in the Trade talks with Japan, clearly crackers https://t.co/ZllQ9poRyd
— Ian collins (@Iancoll94354676) August 11, 2020
8.
Why not figure out how to get lorries into Kent before trying to sell Stilton to the Japanese?
— Sarah Hurst (@Life_Disrupted) August 11, 2020
Emma Kennedy was on hand with a little wedge of Project Fear Brexit reality.
And as of end Jan, the Europeans will be able to make their own stilton and there’ll be absolutely nothing we can do about it.
And that’s Brexitwang https://t.co/J9c5gCOFTN
— Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) August 11, 2020
READ MORE
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Source FT Image Screengrab @edwardhowellphotography on Unsplash
