{"id":20229,"date":"2020-11-04T17:11:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T17:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/?p=20229"},"modified":"2024-04-22T14:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T14:26:03","slug":"liz-truss-chatham-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2020\/11\/liz-truss-chatham-house\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things we learned from Liz Truss\u2019 speech setting out her UK trade policy vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 29th October, Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, gave a keynote speech<\/a> to set out her vision for the UK\u2019s global trading policy – calling for trade to be \u2018firmly anchored in Britain\u2019s core values\u2019. It has been a turbulent first year of the UK\u2019s new independent trading policy, as we have moved towards our departure of the European Union, with the highs of early successes \u2013 such as the UK-Japan agreement \u2013 matched by a bruising political debate around emotive issues, such as the future of the UK\u2019s agricultural standards.<\/p>\n

Here are five things we learned from the speech about how the Trade Secretary seeks to take her brief forward:<\/p>\n

1. The UK will not pursue a \u201cBritain First\u201d approach to free trade. <\/strong>In a rebuke to the slogan pursued by US President Donald Trump in his rather aggressive reframing of American trade policy, Liz Truss ruled out \u201can autarkic Britain First approach\u201d to trade \u2013 suggesting that the UK will approach its trading policy as a mutually beneficial collaboration between partners. She argued that the UK is learning \u201cfrom the twin errors of values-free globalisation and protectionism\u201d but must balance this against the inherent importance of trade, in and of itself, as \u201ca lean, green, value-creating machine\u201d. Truss gave scant detail of how the UK\u2019s trading policy will address concerns citizens hold about globalisation, or how it will be balanced with other domestic economic policies.<\/p>\n

2. Values will be at the heart of the UK\u2019s trading policy. <\/strong>The overwhelming message that Truss sought to convey was that the UK\u2019s trading policy will be \u201cvalues-generating\u201d and \u201cvalues-driven\u201d. By this, she means that not only will the UK Government only pursue agreements in line with its own values, but that the UK will also seek to spread its fundamental values \u2013 defined as \u00a0\u201csovereignty, democracy, the rule of law and a fierce commitment to high standards\u201d \u2013 through its trading policy. However, in practice, a values-based trade policy may prove difficult to achieve, especially in light of the combined economic and political pressures created by Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the UK is said to be \u201cvery close<\/a>\u201d to securing a free trade agreement with Turkey, whose recent aggressions in Syria, Libya and the East Mediterranean, and its belligerence towards France following a spate of recent terror attacks, challenge the legitimacy of the values-first argument.<\/p>\n

3. The UK will seek to challenge China on trade.<\/strong> Although Truss made no direct reference to China, in a number of thinly-veiled comments she repeated criticisms often levied at China, criticising states who \u201cartificially promote state-subsidised products\u201d and engage in forced technology transfer. She argued that \u201cmistakes when the World Trade Organisation allowed new and large economies to join in the early 2000s without being subject to the same disciplines as existing members.\u201d. As such, she committed to using the UK\u2019s G7 presidency next year \u201cto lead the global fightback for free and fair trade, challenging those who won\u2019t play by the rules\u201d. However, as ever, the UK\u2019s willingness and capacity to challenge China as a global trading actor will be tempered by the careful balance to be struck in maintaining positive economic relations with the authoritarian state and keeping China \u2018at the table\u2019 on climate change \u2013 a key UK foreign policy priority.<\/p>\n

4. The UK Government recognises the need to build public support for Free Trade Agreements. <\/strong>Pointing towards the three million signatures that were gathered in Europe opposing the EU\u2019s ascension to TTIP, Truss highlighted the importance of building trust and public support for free trade. She also criticised politicians for not \u201cfully engaging in the concerns the public have\u201d. BFPG research<\/a> shows that whilst Britons are broadly supportive of free trade and globalisation, they have an extensive range of concerns including over the impact on the NHS, food standards, workers\u2019 rights and animal and environmental protections. The Trade Secretary was seeking to signal that HMG will be looking to build some form of engagement into its trade policy machine.<\/p>\n

5. The UK Government continues to resist legislative guarantees for the standards it promises to protect. <\/strong>Truss spelt out explicitly where the UK Government believes the red lines for securing free trade agreements will fall. She pledged that the \u201cNHS remains off the table\u201d, that \u201cfood standards must not be undermined and British farming must benefit\u201d and that \u201cany trade deal must help \u2018level up\u2019 our country\u201d. However, she refused to impose \u201cblanket bans on any food produced differently from the UK\u201d arguing that to do so would have a \u201cdevastating effect on economies which we want to see benefit from free trade\u201d. Activists and many citizens remain suspicious as to why the Government is resisting efforts to enshrine standards in legislation, and this area is clearly going to remain one of the most contentious and difficult communications aspects of the UK\u2019s trade policy moving forward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 29th October, Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss outlined her vision for the UK’s post-Brexit trading policy. The BFPG reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":21525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,165,166,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-brexit","category-international-trade","category-uk-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}