Labour has told Trade Secretary she must act
on the concerns raised in a national opinion survey commissioned
by her own department, after the results were slipped onto the
Department for International Trade (DIT) website after midnight.
The ‘Public Attitudes to Trade’ survey has been produced annually
for the DIT by BMG Research since October 2018. The latest was
conducted between June and August 2020, with a sample size of
3,224 respondents, the biggest survey done to date. It showed:
- Support for free trade agreements remains strong and
consistent, with 63% of respondents saying free trade agreements
will benefit the UK, the same as in 2019, but in the words of the
BMG research report, “concerns are growing”;
- Fewer than half of those surveyed in 2020 (49%) said they
would support a trade deal with the United States, down from 62%
in 2018, while the percentage of respondents actively opposed
rose from 11% to 20%;
- Asked to say what the government’s top priorities should be
in trade negotiations with the US, the three most popular answers
were: (i) maintaining current UK food standards (up from 30% in
2019 to 36%); (ii) protecting public services like the BBC and
NHS (unchanged on 34%); and protecting UK farmers (up from 23% to
26%);
- Support for trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand
remains strong, with almost two-thirds in favour, the same as in
2019, but ‘maintaining current UK food standards’ for Australia
and ‘protecting UK farmers’ for New Zealand were placed joint top
of people’s priorities (both 28%) alongside ‘creating new jobs in
the UK’; and
- Awareness of the government’s flagship trade policy to join
the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership
(CPTPP) is growing but remains very low: 72% of people said they
had never heard of it, or knew nothing about it, compared to 79%
in 2019; and only 14% supported joining the CPTPP, up from 10% in
2019.
Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary, , said:
“Liz Truss may have tried to bury this survey in the dead of
night, but she must not hide from the legitimate concerns being
raised by the British people.
“First, there is still strong public support for trade deals, but
the survey shows she risks putting that in jeopardy if she
continues ignoring rising fears about the impact of her proposed
deals on our farming communities, food standards and public
services.
“And second, she needs to consider whether it is right for her to
rush ahead with her plans to take our country into the
Trans-Pacific Partnership when – according to her own survey –
almost three-quarters of the British people still know nothing
about it.”
Ends
Notes for Editors
- The Public Attitudes to Trade Survey 2020 was published on
the DIT website at 00:15 on 14th September without an
accompanying press notice or statement. The full report and
survey results, including comparisons with previous years can be
found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-attitudes-to-trade-tracker-patt-wave-3
- In the words of BMG Research’s technical report, “DIT view
the UK public as an important group of stakeholders, and the
Public Attitudes to Trade Tracker has been designed to help
ensure that the public’s views are considered during the policy
making process and to inform future communications,...to examine
public attitudes towards trade, to understand the public’s
priorities as they relate to trade policy, and to track how these
may change over time.”
- In addition to those figures highlighted above, it is worth
noting the sharp decline in support for a trade deal with China,
down from 53% support in the October 2018 survey to 28% support
in 2020, with outright opposition up from 15% to 35%. It is the
only proposed free trade deal which has more people opposed than
in favour. Less stark, but also noteworthy, there has also been a
15 percentage point drop in support for a free trade deal with
India in the same period, from 58% to 43%, although opposition is
still low, just 15%, up from 10%.
- It is also notable that ‘maintaining animal welfare standards
in the UK’ which did not feature at all in the list of priorities
listed by respondents in 2019 is now a clear issue, mentioned by
15% of respondents in relation to New Zealand, 16% in relation to
Australia, and 19% in relation to the US, higher than the
priority for ‘increasing UK exports to the US’ (17%).
