The trade department tweeted about ‘soya sauce’ during Bake Off’s Japanese week and it was a glorious self-own

John Plunkett. Updated October 28th, 2020

It was ‘Japan week’ on The Great British Bake Off so the Department for International Trade naturally saw an opportunity to boast about its recent trade deal with Japan.

Except it didn’t end quite as well as they would have hoped.

Here’s the government department’s tweet which started the whole thing.

Except that wasn’t quite right, as lots of people were only too happy to point out.

Current tariff on soy sauce entering the UK from Japan – 0%. Tariff on soy sauce entering UK after UK-Japan trade deal – 0%.

Not a good look when you can't trust a government social media account to tell the truth. https://t.co/IVH5Qg8LtV

— David Henig (@DavidHenigUK) October 27, 2020

The Netherlands exports far more soy sauce than Japan. https://t.co/x5Lf35wqsI

— James Wong (@Botanygeek) October 27, 2020

You know we’re in trouble when…

– You realise this tweet is from the actual Gov trade account

– Praising the Japan deal because it covers soy sauce

– Which we already get at a 0% tariff via EU

– They spell it SOYA https://t.co/ZTE3hYl5dr

— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaNigrelli) October 28, 2020

Current tariff on soy sauce = 0%
Tariff under new deal = 0%
In other words, the best we can manage right now is to brag about standing still. https://t.co/EPiqDq9qRC

— Parody Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson_MP) October 27, 2020

Just when I think I can’t be more embarrassed by our government they start pronouncing soy sauce like they’re Super Mario https://t.co/XaXXcr154D

— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 27, 2020

So whoever runs the department’s Twitter account thought they’d better do a clarification. Of sorts.

But it didn’t really help matters too much.

soy sauce was going to be more expensive because of Brexit but now it's exactly the same why aren't you more grateful pic.twitter.com/zXx5is8jmU

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) October 28, 2020

Soy sauce will be cheaper! To clarify, no it won’t. pic.twitter.com/LYt7i7VUJb

— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 28, 2020

To clarify: this is only relevant to soy sauce from Japan, not the EU, where most of it is currently imported from, with whom we continue to have no trade deal, with just over two months to go. https://t.co/3Tze03PEQ2

— Tom Peck (@tompeck) October 28, 2020

1/ The EU has an agreement with Japan so at best this is the same as before.

2/ You said WTO would be fine. Now you say it’s crap?

3/ Our most popular soy(a?) sauces come from the EU.

4/ If you’re being made to write these against your will, sneak “help” into your next tweet. https://t.co/IR0k7SpJss

— David Schneider (@davidschneider) October 28, 2020

It's like detuning your telly then spending 4 years of effort getting Channel 5 back. https://t.co/NCFM0C4LMY

— The Jase 🐶 🎸 🎥 (@jasemonkey) October 28, 2020

To conclude …

Dim, some. https://t.co/ndN48in3if

— trouteyes (@trouteyes) October 28, 2020

Image Pixabay