{"id":2235,"date":"2017-02-24T02:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T02:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2017-03-19T11:21:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T11:21:55","slug":"trade-negotiating-reality-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=2235","title":{"rendered":"Trade negotiating reality check"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soon Britain will be going it alone on trade at a time of resurgent protectionism. A parliamentary committee has been told it is ill-equipped for the challenge of quickly finding export markets, Geoff Kitney <\/em>reports.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

A sobering picture of Britain\u2019s prospects of achieving Theresa May\u2019s post-Brexit ambition of remaking Britain as a great trading nation has been presented to a parliamentary committee by a panel of trade experts.<\/p>\n

In a three-hour reality check, the panel warned that it was unrealistic to imagine that Britain could become a powerhouse of free trade capable of shifting the balance of power in trade diplomacy back towards trade liberalisation.<\/p>\n

They also raised important questions about Britain\u2019s ability to quickly replace the trade access it gets from its membership of the European single market with Britain\u2019s own bespoke network of free trade agreements (FTAs).<\/p>\n

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Trade negotiation is a craft ….. It is learned by doing<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This included a warning that hopes that the \u201cAnglosphere\u201d countries \u2013 the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand \u2013 will offer Britain an easy passage to free trade agreements to quickly fill the void after Brexit needed to be treated with caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand are giving Britain friendly messages,\u201d Roderick Abbott of the European Centre for International Political Economy told the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I say from my experience as a trade negotiator that friendly messages don\u2019t amount to much in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Abbott was joined on the panel by Dr Federico Ortino, from the Dickson Poon School of Law at King\u2019s College, London, and Professor Jim Rollo from the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex. They were appearing on Tuesday before the House of Commons\u2019 Select Committee on Exiting the European Union.<\/p>\n

The picture that emerged from the questioning and the discussion that it evoked was that Britain, post-Brexit, which will be going it alone on trade at a time of resurgent protectionism, is ill-equipped for the challenge of quickly finding export markets on a scale to match the opportunities and the access that it currently enjoys through membership of the European single market.<\/p>\n

As a European Union member, Britain has free trade access to 53 countries with which the EU has free trade agreements, and which give it a global network of trade flows (see below).<\/p>\n

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Interactive map of trade relationships between the UK and the rest of the world<\/h4>\n
Credit: Office of National Statistics<\/h5>\n