James Kirkup on Trade policy
I an strongly in favour of free trade. It has been one of the greatest engines of growth and development and facilitated huge increases in the standard of living of ordinary people.
It is possible to express entirely legitimate concerns about making sure that the benefits of trade are spread as widely as possible throughout society and that as few people as possible are left behind: there can also be legitimate strategic and national security reasons to protect specific industries. But even though there may be specific exceptions, it is invariably true in general that the more open a country is to trade the more wealth that country can create, the more money will be available for better schools, hospitals and to help and support the vulnerable and the stronger that country will be.
Much of the increased wealth of the world today has come from the long run benefits from past trade deals, mostly negotiated in the 20th century: much of the discontent has come because we have not always managed to ensure that everyone benefits from that extra wealth.
Previous trade deals were mostly about cutting tariffs and, throughout the world, most tariffs except for a few sensitive products like food are pretty low.
Most new trade deals today are about agreeing the common product standards to which goods that are traded have to conform, and this is both a lot more complex and often much more controversial than cutting tariffs. It involves things like whether we regard it as OK to use chlorine or radiation to remove bugs from food; whether genetically modified crops are OK: what safety standards and animal welfare standards we will insist on. Harmonising these between nations is not a simple matter.
There is an excellent article by James Kirkup on the Spectator site here about the challenges which issues like the ones I have described above, and some of the other harsh realities of the modern world, will pose for those who have to set Britain's trade policies in a post-Brexit world.
Do I believe that Britain can surmount those challenges? Absolutely.
Will it be as simple or easy as many people appear to think? Absolutely not.
Hence Kirkup's article is worth a read for anyone with an interest in trade policy.
It is possible to express entirely legitimate concerns about making sure that the benefits of trade are spread as widely as possible throughout society and that as few people as possible are left behind: there can also be legitimate strategic and national security reasons to protect specific industries. But even though there may be specific exceptions, it is invariably true in general that the more open a country is to trade the more wealth that country can create, the more money will be available for better schools, hospitals and to help and support the vulnerable and the stronger that country will be.
Much of the increased wealth of the world today has come from the long run benefits from past trade deals, mostly negotiated in the 20th century: much of the discontent has come because we have not always managed to ensure that everyone benefits from that extra wealth.
Previous trade deals were mostly about cutting tariffs and, throughout the world, most tariffs except for a few sensitive products like food are pretty low.
Most new trade deals today are about agreeing the common product standards to which goods that are traded have to conform, and this is both a lot more complex and often much more controversial than cutting tariffs. It involves things like whether we regard it as OK to use chlorine or radiation to remove bugs from food; whether genetically modified crops are OK: what safety standards and animal welfare standards we will insist on. Harmonising these between nations is not a simple matter.
There is an excellent article by James Kirkup on the Spectator site here about the challenges which issues like the ones I have described above, and some of the other harsh realities of the modern world, will pose for those who have to set Britain's trade policies in a post-Brexit world.
Do I believe that Britain can surmount those challenges? Absolutely.
Will it be as simple or easy as many people appear to think? Absolutely not.
Hence Kirkup's article is worth a read for anyone with an interest in trade policy.
Comments