The top image is a poster from the Department for International Trade which was published by Liam Fox on Tuesday on twitter with the tweet reproduced in the text below. The lower image is the information from the European Union website which explains some of the details of our trading arrangements with Taiwan. Only in using the hashtag #FreeTradeUK does Dr Fox appear to imply that that this agreement to buy British Pork is outside of the EU. However his friend James Rothwell who is the Brexit Correspondent of the Telegraph took matters a few steps further with this article published on Tuesday evening “Critics mocked Dr Fox for his comments, pointing out that just over a year ago he said a trade deal with the EU should be “the easiest in human history.” But Number 10 said it supported Dr Fox’s view, sparing him a ticking off from the Prime Minister. And today, he’s added another string to his Brexit bow [Tweet]:

“BREAKING NEWS: following ongoing UK government effort, Taiwan is preparing to open its market to British pork for the first time. The agreement is expected to be worth more than £50m to British farmers over the next 5 years #FreeTradeUK #FoodisGREAT @UKinTaiwan”

As the Telegraph has reported, Taiwanese and British officials held talks back in November on getting pork back into the market, and clearly they have succeeded. Britain is Taiwan’s third largest trading partner in Europe, while Taiwan is the UK’s eighth largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region, with bilateral trade reaching $5.85 billion (4.45bn GBP) in 2016. But of course, £50m isn’t anywhere near enough money to offset the costs of leaving the EU single market – so in terms of forging ahead with bolder deals with other rapidly growing economies, such as China, Dr Fox still has his work cut out for him.
But even so, this small step towards “Global Britain” should not – if you’ll excuse another pun – be taken for grunted.” 

The truth is that any enhancement to our EU based trading agreements carried out before we leave the EU will clearly improve the prospects of a post Brexit trading arrangement, but the reason why we have been able to sell our Pork to Taiwan is because Taiwan has had a trading deal with the EU which we are still part of, for over 20 years and the moment we leave the EU, we will need to begin trade talks with Taiwan to agree terms outside of the EU for the first time. Of course if we did vote to remain in the EU then we would have been able to benefit from this trade deal without the risk of it being lost as we then spend time reconstructing our trading arrangements.