22 November 2022

POLITICO: Britain’s trade honeymoon is over

Forging an independent trade policy was a key Brexit selling point — but now the rubber’s hitting the road. Forget the flag-waving Instagram posts — Britain’s post-Brexit trading dreams are coming back down to earth.

The country’s much-hyped deals with Australia and New Zealand are facing fresh scrutiny over their impact on farmers, and the U.K.’s most senior trade official — once the darling of the conservative right — has been the subject of an extraordinary attack from a top Tory.

It comes amid slower-than-expected progress on a longed-for trade pact with India, a deal with the United States still stuck in limbo, and as hopes fade that the U.K. will be able to join a key pacific trade bloc this year.

The days of optimistic deadlines, quick wins and colorful social media output from trade secretaries are becoming a distant memory.

“There was a honeymoon period for U.K. trade,” said David Henig, director of the European Centre For International Political Economy. “Now we’re out of that honeymoon period, and things are getting a lot tougher.”

As the finer details of the U.K.'s agreements receive mainstream attention, British politics is coming to grips with what an independent free-trade policy actually entails: winners and losers, controversies, and interdepartmental wrangling.

Trade requires compromise

Forging an independent trade policy was one of the big selling points of leaving the European Union.

The U.K. quickly got to work, building a dedicated Department for International Trade (DIT) from scratch, recruiting a highly regarded trade expert in the shape of Kiwi Crawford Falconer to help formulate a negotiating team, and entering talks with Commonwealth allies.

In rapid time, the U.K. rolled over a host of agreements it had as an EU member, then secured from-scratch free-trade agreements, first with Australia, then New Zealand, as it raced to showcase a Brexit dividend.

Amid the headlines, however, were signs of unrest in U.K. agriculture about the terms of the deals, which see tariffs on beef and sheepmeat phased out and quotas on the quantities the nations can send to Britain rocket. British farmers, who believe the government liberalized unnecessarily far, fear an influx of cheaper produce with little to benefit them in return.

Politico

© POLITICO