Mikedunford wrote:If Bannon wants bilateral trade negotiations with EU member states, he's a total fucking moron. (He's also fucking moron regardless, of course.) Under the Treaty of Lisbon (and CJEU caselaw), foreign trade deals fall within the sole competence of the EU; member states cannot negotiate individual trade deals. This is widely known not only to international law geeks like me, but also to literally everyone in the world who paid even moderate attention to Brexit - one of the objections to the EU that received a great deal of attention was that EU membership kept the UK from entering into preferential trade arrangements with non-EU Commonwealth states.
That's part of the Trump schtick, isn't it? A mixture of "rules and regulations are for little people" and "I make deals, the greatest deals, believe me".
Does Bannon think he can persuade individual EU countries to accept more US goods? Even if the trade regulations weren't a block (which, as Mike states, they absolutely are), I assume those countries must apply EU standards on products. For many things that might not be a problem but EU food safety, hygiene and animal welfare standards tend to be much stricter than those in the US (e.g. on hormones in beef). It's a fantasy on several levels.
Drifting off-topic: Ireland is clearly very worried about the impact of Brexit, both on trade and the effects on their messy land border with the UK. For trade aspects - which I guess will affect required border controls too - Ireland will have to rely on the EU to negotiate. That's not going to be comfortable for the Irish people.
