//You’re just making things up now. Stop digging.//
I think you're right, Zacs. This is a specious argument which has no foundation.
Of course members of a trading bloc have to abide by agreed standards for the goods involved. That's the whole point of a trading agreement and if that's all the EU wanted to impose on its members I think there would have been far less opposition to it in the UK. What I think we are both trying to uncover (without success) is what legislation, beyond those applicable to the goods traded, will the UK allegedly be subject to?
Of course there will be negotiations over standards and where EU standards and those of the CTPP diverge there may be either a need for compromise (though, not, of course with the EU as they don't do compromise) or a need to produce goods to two different standards. It may be, perhaps, that as the proportion of trade between the UK and the EU declines, this country may choose to prioritise its efforts towards other markets. Incredible as it may seem, there are countries outside the EU which want to trade globally. Most of them see that as an opportunity not to be missed rather than a challenge to control and regulate.
Apart from the couple of areas mentioned in the extract from the link, I'd also like to ask Hymie :
- Will CTPP have a "Parliament" with elected members from each participating nation?
- Will it have a Commission which has the power to impose laws (other than trading standards) on its members?
- Will it have a court which will rule on disagreements over those laws?
- Will it seek to impose the unfettered right to free movement of people among its members?
- Will it be introducing a Single Currency after we have joined?
- Will it have environmental and social programmes funded by a small number of its members?
- Will it have oversight of each member nation's budget with a power of veto over their budgetary decisions if grants are to be maintained?
The EU is a political construction which aims to maintain political control over its member nations using trade as the baton with which to beat them if they fail to comply. If you believe the CTPP is a similar construction then the answer to some or all of the above questions will be "Yes". If the answer to those questions (and many others of a similar nature) is "No" (as I suspect it is) then I shall not be choking on my Sovereign Duchy Original Organic biscuits just yet.
This latest argument of yours is about as sound as the one you proposed a week or so ago when you suggested that the "Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform ) Bill" would see an end to statutory sick pay and paid holidays. That is, it has no foundation or rationale at all.