Whitehall is not set up to do trade well, a new report insists. Not only does it lack the necessary expertise, but its standard ways of working will make it more difficult to establish an effective trade policy.
By nature generalist, secretive and unwilling to make difficult trade-offs, Whitehall will, the report argues, present Government Ministers with some very difficult political choices.
Published by the Institute for Government (IfG), Taking Back Control of Trade Policy says that, despite the creation of the Department for International Trade (DIT), the UK’s Ministers and civil service are not even close to being ready to negotiate – let alone implement – new global trading relationships.
The UK will only reap the benefits of taking back control of trade policy if the Government radically changes the way it operates, the IfG states.
The report’s 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.
However, it points out, that is not Whitehall’s normal way of doing business.
Ministers will have to make difficult choices about the UK’s priorities – and must recognise there is much more to trade policy than making deals.
Rather than prioritising negotiations with Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries) or the USA, the focus should be on replicating existing EU deals with Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and Singapore, the report recommends.
Commenting for the IfG, Oliver Ilott warned against the UK 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 explores options that may be better than free trade agreements,” he said.
