WTO rules

At the moment the UK is part of the EU. The EU has import/export quotas allocated to it by the WTO. When we leave the EU these will have to be sorted. The government plan was to simply split the existing quotas between us and the rest of the EU.

Essentially, the tariff rate quotas impose a low tariff up to a certain volume of imports of a certain item, above that volume a much higher tariff is charged. The purpose is to protect domestic producers from a flood of cheap imports out-competing them.

The US, Canada and NZ, amongst other nations, have objected, saying that simply splitting the quotas "would not be consistent with the principle of leaving other WTO members no worse off".

They argue that access to the divided UK/EU market would be of lower value due to the reduced flexibility compared to a single market, so new quotas will need to be decided and signed off by all WTO members.

So more negotiations loom, and ones where we need as much international support as possible - it is a pity that our foreign secretary spends his time offending other countries when he isn't busy intriguing against his party leader.

The US's actions (together with the Bombardier affair) should surely put to rest the fond hope that brown-nosing to them would give us a quick trade deal. Mr Trump is putting America First, as promised.

Let us hope that our EU negotiations make fast enough progress - the 'cliff edge' beloved of Brextremists now seems to be hanging over an abyss. We may end up with no trade agreement and no WTO rules.