The major trade headline today is that prime minister Andy Burnham has said Brexit has done “more harm than good” to the UK and he would consider a wide range of options when it comes to repairing the relationship with Europe.
These options include rejoining the customs union or the single market and even seeking re-entry into the EU, he told the BBC this morning.
Burnham also laid out several key commitments on energy policy and social care alongside his trade policy and outlined his “theory of growth”.
Burnham reopens Brexit debate
In a wide-ranging and at times emotional speech, Burnham set out his long-term vision for the UK, raising four seismic issues in UK politics and promising to change the economic path of the country.
The PM said the UK had been on “the wrong path” for many years, with many places “left to drift”. He also asked what “deindustrialisation, deregulation, privatisation, austerity…Brexit” had given to the country.
On Brexit specifically, Burnham said that Brexit “had done more harm than good” and has not given the UK control over many issues, while also committing to repairing relations with Europe.
Burnham later confirmed that rejoining the EU was among the options the government could look at. He also said the country could consider joining a customs union or the single market.
Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, told Politico that “on any of the discussions, what’s really important is that the views of business are heard and form part of the decision-making process”.
Any of the options would “require compromise and there will be winners and losers, particularly of course for businesses whose majority of trade or sole trade is outside the EU,” pointing to recent delas with India, the Gulf Cooperation Council or the CPTPP.
According to the FT, the delayed EU-UK Leader’s Summit has been pencilled in for 20 November. Additionally, Politico reports that business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the conference that Brussels and Westminster have reached an “agreement in principle” on steel measures.
‘Theory of growth’
Burnham also announced he will end the pensions triple lock from 2030, would create a new public Great British Grid company to speed up electricity development projects, and work on electoral reform.
“I have a theory of growth. It starts by retaking control of the essentials that make a place work or not,” he said of his plan for the three ‘re’s’: rewiring of the British state, rebuilding of resilience and reindustrialisation.
“You’ve got to have that control over the fundamental things that everybody needs. And from there, you devolve more power to places, to put them in charge and decide their own destiny.
US tariffs back in court
The next phase of the US tariff legal saga will kick off today, as the US Court of International Trade hears oral arguments on the latest challenge to Trump’s trade policy.
The Liberty Justice Center, which challenged the original ‘reciprocal tariffs’, announced earlier in the year that they were challenging the new arrangements in the case of Burlap and Barrel, Inc. and Collective Horology, LLC v Greer.
In an email from the centre, lawyers argued that the stated goal of combatting forced labour in supply chains, justified under section 301 of the Trade Act 1974, does not allow the Federal Government to “disregard the limits Congress imposed on Section 301”.
Even if the plaintiffs are initially successful, it is widely expected that the case will end up in front of the US Supreme Court.
Other news
- The EU is pushing China to accept quotas in a bid to rebalance the trading relationship
- The UK economy grew more than expected in Q2, following revisions by the Office for National Statistics, with new data showing that GDP growth amounted to 0.5% (up by 0.1%)
Yesterday in trade
- Trade experts on a Chartered Institute panel at Labour Conference warned that smaller businesses were struggling to trade with the EU
- Other panellists pointed to initiatives like the Single Trade Window as ways to make trade easier
- Reynolds said he could compromise on several ‘Made in Europe’ challenges
