Canada fossil fuel workers want victorious Trudeau to keep retraining pledge

By Nia Williams 20 hrs ago
   

© Reuters/MIKE STURK FILE PHOTO: 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Calgary

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's narrow election victory this week reinforced Canada's commitment to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but workers in the country's sizable fossil fuel sector said they also expect him to keep his promises to retrain them for jobs in a clean-energy economy.

Oil worker advocacy group Iron & Earth estimates Canada will need around C$10 billion ($7.8 billion) over 10 years to retrain fossil fuel workers, but is sceptical about government promises to help after past pledges failed to materialise.

"At what point do these stop being promises and start being actions? These are people's livelihoods on the line," said Luisa Da Silva, executive director of Iron & Earth.

Da Silva said the country risks losing the skilled labour crucial to a clean energy economy if the government does not prioritise transition funding, which the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement recognizes as important to ensure no workers are left behind as the world decarbonizes.

As the clean energy economy takes off, it will generate some 640,000 jobs by 2030, a 50% increase from 2021, with strong growth in Alberta, industry body Clean Energy Canada forecasts.

But Steve MacDonald, CEO of Emissions Reduction Alberta, a provincial government-funded organization that invests in emissions-reducing technology, said it would be difficult to recreate the sustained economic contribution that was associated with the oil and gas sector.

Two years ago, the Liberal Party announced a "Just Transition Act" to support and retrain oil and gas workers, but only launched consultations to shape that legislation in July, and then put it on hold in August when the election was called. Trudeau announced a similar programme worth C$2 billion during the 2021 election campaign.

The oil and gas industry is Canada's highest polluting sector, accounting for 26% of all of carbon output. Yet Canada is the world's No. 4 oil producer and some 450,000 jobs directly or indirectly linked to the industry are at risk over the next three decades as the country slashes climate-warming carbon emissions, TD Bank estimates.

So any talk of shrinking the sector is touchy, particularly in the staunchly conservative energy heartland of Alberta where many oil and gas workers live in remote communities scattered across the prairies and northern boreal forest. Trudeau sparked fury among them in 2017 when he talked about "phasing out" the oil sands.

Those remarks contributed to a wipe-out of Liberals in Alberta during 2019 election, although Liberal candidates are leading or elected in two seats in the just-concluded 2021 election. Failing to help retrain workers could batter local economies and sap support from government efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

"With the loss of any position in the oil and gas industry, the effect trickles down seven times due to the loss of economic spinoff effects," said Gerald Aalbers, mayor of Lloydminster, a city of 31,000 straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border where an estimated 15% of jobs depend on the fossil fuel industry.

"The costs to retool the economy and businesses, let alone employees, will be tremendous."

'ONE-INDUSTRY CITY'

Canada's petroleum sector, which includes oil and gas extraction and refining, contributes about 5.3% to national GDP.

The Trudeau government is working with major producers like Suncor Energy to develop technologies like carbon capture to allow companies to bury emissions underground rather than cut production.

Still, downsizing of the industry seems inevitable if Canada is to meet its 2050 net zero goal, and an interim target of cutting emissions 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2030.

In the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, where a nearly a third of all jobs are in fossil fuels, workers are nervous.

"We are a one-industry city," said Dirk Tolman, 59, a heavy equipment operator and union leader at Suncor, who has worked in the oil sands since 2008. "Without the oil sands I don't know if anybody would be staying in Fort McMurray."

Even if clean energy jobs do replace oil and gas jobs, they are unlikely to be in the same location.

Sean Cadigan, a professor of history at Memorial University of Newfoundland, who has studied the impact of the collapse of Atlantic Canada's fishing industry in the 1990s, said oil and gas communities need new industries to develop alongside any shutdown of fossil fuels.

"(Otherwise) it will lead to a profound dislocation of people and that will always have grave impact on communities left behind," he said.

($1 = 1.2822 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Denny Thomas and David Gregorio)

COMMENTARY: Rise of People’s Party is moment of reckoning for Canada

Canada needs to reckon with the People’s Party.

globalnewsdigital 23 hrs ago

© Eloise Therien / Global News Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada

Far-right. Fringe. Toxic. The party won five per cent of the vote share in the 44th general election with more than 820,000 ballots cast for it. It won no seats but grew its support.

The People's Party of Canada has become a rallying point for extremists who existed before it did, but who now have an organizational anchor and home. That is troubling.

Read more: Maxime Bernier, PPC leader, defeated in Quebec riding of Beauce

Writing in Maclean’s, Pam Palmater points out Monday’s returns “reveal a growing threat to public safety that has been largely unaddressed — the rise of far-right groups who have used the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic to gain support.” She notes such threats are particularly troubling for “Black, Indigenous, and racialized people and women.”

She’s right. The Anti-Hate Network has tracked some incidents and trends that ought to have everyone concerned. Plus, as the Globe and Mail’s Tom Cardoso reports, certain online groups are home to individuals spreading misinformation and hate, urging PPC support. After failing to win a seat, PPC supporters falsely and baselessly claimed that the election was “rigged.” This narrative will play into the party’s culture of alienation and resentment, encouraging more of the same.

Seat or no seat, who is voting for the People’s Party and where do they come from? Pollster Darrell Bricker points out there was no purple wave on election night, no shy PPC supporter evading pollsters or lying about their voting intent. He says the party's support was consistent throughout the election. That indicates a pre-existing base, small so far but of concern, and up over the 2019 lot.

Poll analyst Éric Grenier broke down party popular vote change across provinces. Based on results as of Sept. 21, before mail-in ballots were counted, the PPC grew by six points in Manitoba, five points in Saskatchewan, 5.3 points in Alberta, just over 4.3 points in New Brunswick, and four points in Ontario. The party was up in every province — the only party to manage that feat.

Ahead of the election, Grenier pointed out the PPC is new and its voter coalition is, too. But we have some sense of who the party's supporters tend to be. Grenier points to a Forum Research poll that found the party home to supporters who were anti-vax, climate change deniers, anti-abortion, Trump-loving, and pro-gun. And angry. Not a good combination.

Read more: PPC support in B.C.’s Interior above national average

Video: Maxime Bernier’s popularity tied to more than health restriction anger, experts say

Looking at the PPC through an electoral lens, Grenier argued that you can’t simply assume a PPC vote would have otherwise been a Conservative Party vote. He cites Abacus Data findings from September that show “about 60% of PPC supporters voted for the Conservatives or PPC in the last election, roughly split down the middle. Another one-fifth did not vote in 2019 — either because they were too young or just didn’t turn out — while the rest voted for the Liberals (about half of the remainder), the NDP, Greens or Bloc Québécois.”

So, the PPC is a drag on the Conservative Party, but neither exclusively nor as much as you might assume. Still, the party likely cost the Conservatives some wins. As Rachel Emmanuel writes for iPolitics, looking at ridings with close margins in which the PPC vote was higher than the difference between the winning candidate and the second-place finisher Conservative yields several candidates for PPC spoiler races. Incidentally, the 2019 election produced a similar story.

The fact is that in a first-past-the-post system, small shifts in the vote can have significant impacts, especially when margins are narrow, as they often are, but without concentrated support, it’s hard for parties to return seats. The electoral PPC effect seems real, but nowhere near enough to cost the Tories the election. The Conservatives have bigger problems, namely: the Liberals and their own incapacity to break through in Ontario, especially in the Greater Toronto Area.

Commentary: The problem with an electoral system that jams 5 parties into a Parliament built for 2

The essential question to ask about the PPC isn’t whether it cost the Conservatives votes and seats — yes and probably. The essential questions to ask about the PPC are what sort of behaviour the party is enabling, what sort of people is it organizing and coordinating, and what that means for the country’s political ecosystem and those who live in it.

When angry, distrustful, disaffected, hateful people rally together, you can expect trouble. It’s therefore incumbent on us to assess the far-right movement, refuse to normalize it, track it closely, and work to neutralize it.

David Moscrop is a contributing columnist to the Washington Post and the author of “Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones.”

Race to become Japan’s next PM too close to call days before vote

ONE OF THE TWO GUY'S OF COURSE

Justin McCurry in Tokyo 

The race to become leader of Japan’s ruling party and the next prime minister is too close to call ahead of next week’s party election. It is a rare moment of uncertainty after almost a decade during which Shinzō Abe became the country’s longest-serving prime minister until he was replaced last year by his close ally Yoshihide Suga.

© Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP The candidates to lead the Liberal Democratic party (from left): Taro Kono, Fumio Kishida, Sanae Takaichi and Seiko Noda.

When Abe abruptly announced his resignation last August, citing the recurrence of a chronic health problem, the identity of his successor was never in doubt. As Abe’s chief cabinet secretary for almost eight years, Suga had proved a loyal lieutenant, perfecting the role of taciturn spokesperson in his daily encounters with the media.

Suga secured the backing of the major factions inside the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP). But after a year in which his approval ratings plummeted amid criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic – failing even to capitalise on success for homegrown athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – the party that has governed Japan almost without interruption since the mid-1950s is divided over his replacement.

The winner of the 29 September poll of 383 lawmakers and an equal number of rank-and-file LDP members is practically assured of becoming prime minister given the party’s dominance of the lower house of parliament.

Days after the campaign officially opened, the election has become a two-horse race between Taro Kono, the popular vaccine minister, and Fumio Kishida, a quietly spoken former foreign minister whose reputation as a consensus builder could bring stability to the party after a year of turmoil.

While the inclusion of two women in the field has reignited a discussion about poor female representation in Japanese politics, neither has nearly enough support to become the country’s first female prime minister.

Seiko Noda is a former women’s empowerment minister who has campaigned on the themes of inclusivity and diversity, while Sanae Takaichi, a rightwing former internal affairs minister who was once photographed with a Japanese neo-Nazi, has vowed to create a “beautiful and strong Japan”.

The only other woman to run for the LDP leadership was the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, in 2008.

But it will be Kono, 58, or the 64-year-old Kishida who leads the LDP into the general election this autumn and attempts to win over voters angered by Suga’s incompetence and uncertainty about the world’s third-biggest economy as it emerges from the pandemic.

Kono, who was educated at Georgetown University and whose politician father, Yohei, famously issued a formal apology for Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves, has championed renewable energy and reform of the bureaucracy.

A fluent English speaker who is regarded as a maverick in Japan’s hidebound political world, Kono has attracted international headlines for insisting that foreign media organisations revert to the traditional word order when writing Japanese names, and for his attempts to wean digital-sceptic officials off fax machines.

In recent remarks, Kono said he supported legalising same-sex marriage and allowing women to retain their maiden names after marriage. Kishida, however, said he had “not yet reached the point” where he could back gay marriage.

While Abe has come out in support of his hawkish ally Takaichi, Suga has thrown his weight behind Kono, whom he praised for speeding up Japan’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout after a slow start earlier this year.

“It is [Kono] … who achieved great results in the middle of a national crisis,” Suga said. “Continuity is extremely important for Covid-19 measures. With that in mind, I am supporting Mr Kono.”

A weekend poll by the Kyodo news agency showed that 48.6% of grassroots LDP members supported Kono, followed by Kishida on 18.5%, with Takaichi on 15.7% and 3.3% for Noda.

Despite his support among the LDP rank and file and the wider Japanese public, Kono is not assured of victory now that most of the party’s factions, aware that a disenchanted public is preparing for a general election, have allowed their members a free vote in the presidential race.

“Given that the factions aren’t endorsing anyone officially, it’s kind of a free-for-all,” said Tobias Harris, senior fellow for Asia at the Center for American Progress. “It’s hard to say that there’s really a true frontrunner.”

If either Kono or Kishida fails to win a majority in the first round, they will face a runoff with only LDP MPs and a single party representative from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures allowed to vote – a development that could favour the latter as factional politics come back into play.

“Ordinarily, we should be focusing on the candidates, but in fact the key people are still the old guard who are trying to get their ‘children’ elected leader,” said the freelance journalist Tetsuo Suzuki, who has been covering Japanese politics for 40 years.

But, he added, “the LDP knows that it’s important to take the public’s views into account, so in a sense this will be a litmus test for the upcoming general election. The party can’t afford to embarrass itself [by voting on factional lines] and lose support among voters.”

Rugby World Cup winner Thompson pledges brain for head trauma research

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

ODD ANDERSEN AFP/File

London (AFP)

Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson, who has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, has pledged to donate his brain for use by scientists researching head trauma.

Thompson cannot remember playing in England's World Cup final win over Australia in 2003 because of his condition.

The 43-year-old is among a group of ex-players suffering from neurological conditions involved in a legal action against several rugby authorities, alleging negligence.

The Concussion Legacy Project will use Thompson's brain for research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be diagnosed after death, and other consequences of brain trauma.

It comes as concerns grow over the link between sport and long-term brain injury across a range of sports including rugby and football.

"I'm pledging my brain so the children of the people I love don't have to go through what I have gone through," said former hooker Thompson, who was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 42.

"It's up to my generation to pledge our brains so researchers can develop better treatments and ways to make the game safer."

The project is a new brain bank formed through a partnership between the Concussion Legacy Foundation UK (CLF UK) and the Jeff Astle Foundation.

Former footballer Astle, who had a lengthy playing career with West Brom, suffered from dementia before his death in 2002.

His daughter Dawn Astle, who set up the foundation, hailed the initiative.

"Brain donation is the most valuable gift of all for future generations of footballers," she said.

"It may be many years before this jigsaw is complete, but by adding each piece, one at a time, it is the only way we shall understand the true picture and so be able to make a better future for others."

In July, World Rugby announced details of a major programme to improve care for elite players returning to play following a confirmed concussion.

On Wednesday the global governing issued new contact training guidance aimed at reducing injury risks.

Concussion Legacy Foundation UK executive director Adam White said further research into the issue was "urgently" needed.

"We have reason for hope," he said. "CTE usually begins in a person’s teens or twenties, which means we have a lifetime to treat patients, educate people and support their families.

"We want to stop all new cases of CTE in the next five years and have a cure by 2040."

CLF UK encourages all athletes and military veterans to pledge to donate their brains at PledgeMyBrain.org

© 2021 AFP

ART FOR SALE

Art Basel fair breathes life back into moribund market



Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Basel (Switzerland) (AFP)

Art Basel, the world's top contemporary art fair, has returned to the Swiss city after a year's gap due to Covid-19 curbs, drawing hordes of wealthy buyers and breathing life into a market devastated by the pandemic.

Despite the near-total absence of US collectors -- a key client base for artists and galleries -- big-money buyers were back from Tuesday to preview the works before the event opens to the public for three days from Friday.

After last year's cancellation, some 272 galleries from 33 countries returned to showcase both emerging artists and major contemporary art figures such as David Hockney, Frank Bowling and Olafur Eliasson.

Exhibitors were impatiently awaiting Art Basel's return, but at the end of August, the United States advised against travel to Switzerland, raising fears that the pandemic would spoil the comeback.

- Tension and excitement -

"We had an environment which was suddenly very tense," Art Basel's global director Marc Spiegler told AFP.

But he said the fair had tried to remove all traces of the pandemic inside the halls so that visitors "could focus on the artists".

But once the doors opened, he said the atmosphere inside was "buoyant".

"People are excited to see each other again... to see great art in front of them, and not through a screen," he said.

After Tuesday's opening day, several large galleries were already lining up their first seven-figure sales -- $6.5 million for an oil on canvas work by Philip Guston at the Hauser and Wirth gallery; $5-5.5 million for a Keith Haring painting at Gladstone, and $3 million for a Dan Flavin installation at David Zwirner.

US contemporary artist Lari Pittman standing in front of his artwork entitled: "Curiosities from a Late Western Impaerium, 2014" Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

"The fair is going extremely well, exceeding all expectations," Emmanuel Perrotin, the founder of France's Galerie Perrotin, told AFP.

Amid booming interest from European collectors, three quarters of the works on show had already been sold by mid-afternoon, he said.

The Austrian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac had sold the three large pieces in its monumental works section, including a huge sculpture by Valie Export representing intertwined scissors.

- Barometer for the market -

In 2020, the art market fell by 22 percent to $50.1 billion, according to a study by art market specialist Clare McAndrew.

Art galleries were particularly hard hit by the cancellations of major art fairs that contributed around 43 percent of their 2019 sales.

The boom in online sales and drastic spending cuts have allowed them to stay afloat, but many admit that this model is unsustainable in the long run.

"Online sales helped galleries to continue to work with existing clients during the pandemic," McAndrew told AFP.

Artists in transparent plastic inflated plastic balls perform "Tears" by Monster Chetwynd at Art Basel 

Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

However, "art fairs are essential to meet new clients", she explained.

The pandemic recovery has tended to favour large galleries over smaller ones with less financial leeway to cope with the shock, said Julie Hughes, head of the art market at the insurer Hiscox.

"We are not seeing any bankruptcies yet," she said, underlining that the survival of the smallest galleries often depended on big art fairs where they can generate "30 percent, 50 percent, or even more of their annual turnover" within just a few days.

A visitor stands by an artwork by US pop artist Nate Lowman called "Untitled" 2013/2015 

Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Hans Laenen, head of the art market for Europe at Axa Art, expects a resumption of purchases.

"It will be very interesting to see where the sales are at the end of the fair," he said, adding that Art Basel will act as a barometer for trends in the art market.

© 2021 AFP

CHRISTIAN TALIBAN #BANBLASPHMEYLAWS #LGBTQ

Kenya bans 'blasphemous' film about gay lovers

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

Murimi told AFP last October that he did not expect the documentary to fare well with Kenyan censors Tolga AKMEN AFP

Nairobi (AFP)

Kenyan authorities on Thursday banned a documentary about two gay lovers, calling it "unacceptable and an affront to (the) culture and identity" of a deeply Christian country which has long criminalised homosexuality.

Directed by a Kenyan filmmaker, "I Am Samuel" depicts a romantic relationship between two men living in Nairobi and has aroused the ire of the country's censors for promoting "same-sex marriage as an acceptable way of life".

The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) said the documentary sought to propagate "values that are in dissonance with our constitution, culture values and norms".

"Worse still, the production is demeaning of Christianity as two gay men in the film purport to conduct a religious marriage invoking the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," KFCB boss Christopher Wambua said in a statement, declaring it "blasphemous".

"Any attempt to exhibit, distribute, broadcast or possess the restricted film within the Republic of Kenya shall, therefore, be met with the full force of the law."

Homosexuality is taboo across much of Africa, and gays often face discrimination or persecution.

Attempts to overturn British colonial-era laws banning homosexuality in Kenya have proven unsuccessful, and gay sex remains a punishable crime with penalties that include imprisonment of up to 14 years.

"I Am Samuel" is the second gay-themed film to be banned in Kenya, following a 2018 decision to stop cinemas from showing "Rafiki", a lesbian love story which became the first Kenyan movie to premiere at the Cannes film festival.

The ban on "Rafiki" ("friend" in Swahili) was later overturned by a court, and the film opened to sold-out audiences in Nairobi.

"I Am Samuel" director Peter Murimi told AFP in an interview last October that he did not expect the documentary to fare well with Kenyan censors.

He described the film as "very nuanced, it's very balanced, it's a story about a family that is struggling with this issue, having a gay son."

"So we'll just try our best and hopefully Kenyans will see it and that's what we want," he said.

The documentary, which has been shown at several film festivals and is available to rent online, also enjoys support from "Rafiki" director Wanuri Kahiu.

"We change people through conversation, not through censorship," she tweeted in response to news of the ban, quoting hip-hop star Jay Z.

Little Amal: Puppet of young Syrian refugee girl reaches Marseille


Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 
Video by:Wassim Cornet

A giant puppet representing an uprooted Syrian child named Little Amal arrived at the French port of Marseille on Thursday, as part of a journey across Europe that began in Turkey and will end in the UK in November. This 3.5 metre-tall puppet created by Handspring Puppet Company is meant to focus attention on the urgent needs of young refugees.

GAIA'S ALIVE PELE CRIES

La Palma volcano: Lava engulfs homes, plantations and memories

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 
Video by:Sarah MORRIS

Jets of red hot lava shot high into the sky on the Spanish island of La Palma on Thursday morning as toxic ash from the Cumbre Vieja volcano coated the surrounding area and authorities sought shelter for thousands of people forced to flee. For a fifth day, lava flowing down the slopes of the volcano engulfed houses, schools and banana plantations, although more slowly than in previous days. FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris tells us more.

Eruption on Spanish island could last 3 months, experts say

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

Video by :Sarah MORRIS

Several small earthquakes shook the Spanish island of La Palma off northwest Africa, keeping nerves on edge as rivers of volcanic lava continued to flow toward the sea and a new vent blew open on the mountainside. The volcanic eruption and its aftermath could last for up to 84 days, experts said Wednesday. FRANCE 24's Sarah Morris tells us more.

Thousands fight wildfires threatening California's sequoias

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

Growing armies of firefighters battled wildfires in the heart of California’s sequoia country on Wednesday. A big increase in personnel put more than 1,400 firefighters on the lines of the KNP Complex fire in Sequoia National Park, fire information officer Ana Beatriz Cholo said.

NAFTA2 NOT FOR YOU
Boris Johnson plays down hopes of Britain joining US-Mexico-Canada trade pact after backlash

Boris Johnson insisted that Joe Biden ‘will be there’ on a trade deal eventually, despite the president showing little sign of interest in an agreement



By Hugo Gye
Political Editor
September 23, 2021 

Boris Johnson has played down the prospect of Britain joining the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal as a replacement for stalled talks with Washington on a bilateral deal.

Labour accused the Government of an “utterly farcical” policy as No 10 insisted the US negotiations were still alive despite some of the Prime Minister’s allies pushing for an alternative plan.

But Mexico opened the door to the USMCA proposals, with a senior politician involved in negotiating the pact saying it would be possible for Britain to take part as the fourth member at some point in future.

Asked during their White House meeting on Tuesday whether a UK-US trade agreement was possible, Joe Biden said only: “We are going to talk about trade a little bit today, we are going to have to work that through.” He has effectively suspended all bilateral trade talks after taking over from Donald Trump.

The Government is considering applying for USMCA if it becomes clear that the negotiations with Washington will not restart. However, Mr Johnson said: “We are focussed on our bilateral relations. Trade with the United States is growing the whole time, very fast, and that is fantastic – but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t do even more, and we have got to focus on that.”

He insisted that the current President is a “deal maker” and added that “America will be there” on a trade deal eventually, but added that amid a tough fight on domestic infrastructure funding “he can’t load up his political plate much more”.

Labour’s shadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry accused the Government of a U-turn, saying: “Within the space of 24 hours, Boris Johnson has taken us from first in line to the back of the queue for a US trade deal, briefed reporters in Washington that we were seeking to join the USMCA instead, and now decided to ditch that idea as well, presumably after someone bothered to read the agreement and realised what it would mean for food standards and the NHS.

“It is an utterly farcical way for the Prime Minister to carry on when representing our country abroad, and a shambolic approach to running the UK’s trade policy.”

Kenneth Smith Ramos, who was Mexico’s chief negotiator for the USMCA, told Bloomberg News it would be harder to join the deal from outside than the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but still possible. He said: “Although there isn’t a specific accession clause as there is in the CPTPP, the Free Trade Commission of the USMCA could agree to enter into negotiations with a third party.”

A UK Government source said the idea of joining the pact has “been talked about in trade policy circles for a long time”, but added: “It’s not something we’re actively exploring.”

Experts also said it would be at least as difficult as a bilateral deal with the US, as America’s demands would be the same while Canada, for example on pork exports, and Mexico, on sugar, would be looking to negotiate better terms than they currently have with the UK.

Liz Truss, the new Foreign Secretary, is travelling to Mexico on Thursday to open the new UK embassy and speak to her Mexican counterpart. She said: “Closer ties with Mexico are a key part of our plan to strengthen economic, security and diplomatic links with like-minded allies who share our belief in free enterprise and free trade.”