The UK will only reap the benefits of taking back control of
trade policy if government radically changes the way it operates,
says a new report from the Institute for Government.
Taking Back Control of Trade Policy says that,
despite the creation of a new trade department, the civil service
and ministers are not even close to being ready to negotiate –
let alone implement – new global trading relationships. The paper
sets out the how the UK can become a powerful, independent player
in international trade.
The authors argue that good trade policy requires civil servants
to work across departments, collaborate with business, be open
with consumers and the public and spend their careers developing
deep knowledge and expertise. But this is not Whitehall’s normal
way of doing business.
Ministers will have to make tricky choices about the country’s
priorities and recognise there is much more to trade policy than
making deals. They should avoid sinking resources into
negotiations with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and
China) or the USA, prioritising instead the replication of
existing EU deals with Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey
and Singapore.
The Institute for Government's Brexit Programme Director Jill
Rutter said:
“Whitehall is not set up to do trade well. Not only does it
currently lack the necessary expertise but its standard ways of
working – generalist, secretive and unwilling to make difficult
trade-offs – are all the enemies of doing trade policy well.
Ministers will find that taking back control of trade also means
taking back responsibility for some very difficult political
choices – and they need to be ready to make and justify them.”
Oliver Ilott, Senior Researcher and the report's lead author,
said:
“Trade policy is about much more than making deals. There is a
real danger that the UK wastes its limited capacity launching
trade negotiations with large numbers of countries, and either
doing bad deals quickly or getting bogged down in protracted
talks going nowhere. The Government needs a strategy that targets
a few priority countries and also explores options that may be
better than free trade agreements.”
Download
the full report
