In the year we celebrate the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith, we must also celebrate the idea that the wealth of nations and the free, fair exchange of goods and services are intricately connected.
This idea is what made Britain one of the wealthiest countries in the world and – with one in three pounds in our economy from trade – it is the only way of maintaining our standard of prosperity.
Conservatives signed a great many trade agreements in the four years after we left the EU. Many of them under Kemi Badenoch who was our then Business and Trade Secretary. Accession to the CPTPP has opened a $15 trillion market of over 500 million people living in fast-growing economies. It’s so good that the EU now wants to join it too. We signed new agreements with Australia and New Zealand that opened up trade far beyond what was possible while we were still in the EU. And as a constructive opposition we have welcomed the efforts of this Government where they have sought to build on our achievements.
We encouraged the Government to work day-and-night to get a deal with the US. Unfortunately, it took them several months to even get started after the current Trump administration was elected. Many of the potential agreements are on hold due to the White House fearing Labour’s EU reset will lock us into non-tariff EU barriers again. The tech prosperity deal has been on ice for months after it was supposedly signed, with its negotiation status distinctly opaque. The much-vaunted pharmaceutical deal with the US has still not commenced. And while the Government did swiftly secure a lower tariff rate for a limited number of automotive exports than the EU, the ground has now shifted again so that our rate is no lower than that of anybody else.
We will support the Government if it completes the trade deals that we started with the GCC and our friends in Saudi and the UAE and we urge them to go further and faster with Mercosur.
We are also clear-eyed about our relationship with the EU. Believing in free trade does not mean believing in subjugating yourself to your biggest neighbour. No one says to the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the thing you need to do is take sovereign powers away from your Ottawa Parliament and hand them to the US Congress. Yet the Canadian economy is more interlinked with that of its close neighbour than the UK ever has been to the EU.
Britain fought hard over many years to win regulatory independence from Europe and with good reason. Eliminating frictions is fine, but a red line for Conservatives is giving up the freedom for Parliament to make its own rules. We will not for example cede our ability to be one of the world’s leaders in AI – lightyears ahead of any European capital – while the EU ties itself in knots with luddite legislation. And we will not give up the opportunity to play a role in creating the next generation of genetically modified foods leading to cheaper, and healthier foods grown with fewer resources. Technologies that will be invaluable as our planet changes and could mean the eradication of famine.
When the world becomes more fragile and dangerous, you look to your oldest and most reliable friends. Those with whom we have deep and familial links.
So, in contrast to the Government’s EU ‘surrender’ reset, we will look to expand the agreements we already have around the world and leverage our historic relationships. There are 1.5 billion people – many in the Commonwealth – who speak English as their first or second language. Instead of apologising for the past and indulging the idea of reparations, we would look to favour the Commonwealth as a potential trade bloc, using our shared values to create a trusted lower tariff or free trade zone.
And as future Secretary of State, top of my in-tray will be working to make CANZUK – the alliance between the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand a reality. A core part of the ‘Anglosphere’, together, CANZUK represents a combined GDP of $8 trillion and a population of 140 million of the most educated, like-minded, and ambitious people in the world.
Finally, we need to redouble our efforts and do things differently than we have in the past. While we will take headcount down in Whitehall, we would not, as this Government is doing, let the axe fall first on front-line trade promotion and support. And we Conservatives will parachute private sector experience directly into those parts of government that support exporters.
That’s why, together with the Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel I have announced plans to appoint former Lord Mayors, top business CEOs, chairmen of FTSE companies, and others as ambassadors to countries where that role is primarily economic. This should not be controversial, nor is it a criticism of the hard work that many of our ambassadors and foreign office officials do. The reality is that this is common elsewhere, and simply good practice in today’s world. It leverages some of our brightest people with sterling connections around the world, who want to serve their country.
Free trade is what has driven technological and cultural innovation forward to take us to the skies, to the moon, to cure diseases, and put the most powerful computers in history in the palm of our hand. We Conservatives have not forgotten the value of free trade, nor will we be shy in defending and promoting it.
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