United Kingdom to concentrate a new commercial strategy on the increase in services exports

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Sir Keir Starmer will launch a new business strategy focused on improving British services on Thursday, while strengthening anti-dumping defenses to protect Great Britain from the fallout from Donald Trump.

The Minister of Trade, Douglas Alexander, said that Starmer would state a policy based on “pragmatic patriotism”, embracing free trade and seeking to build markets around the world, including China and the Gulf.

“Our strategic response to this new world cannot be based on nostalgia or post-imperial illusion, not to mention any ideological or dogmatic attachment to a commercial block or another,” Alexander told Financial Times.

Speaking before the launch, he said that the commercial strategy would focus on the decomposition of regulatory obstacles “behind the border” to stimulate exports from the dominant services of Great Britain, worth around 500 billion pounds sterling per year.

The strategy will try to combat the lamentable commercial performance of the United Kingdom from Brexit, which has experienced a sharp drop in exports of goods which has only been partially offset by solid growth in services.

Trade volumes of Real-Terms UK have increased by only 1% since 2019, while the EU and the G7 experienced 8% growth, said Center for European Reform last month.

Alexander said that a new “Ricardo Fund” – named after the free trade economist – worth “tens of millions of pounds” would help British regulators and overseas teams to identify and combat obstacles to trade in services.

“During prices, the world service trade is booming,” he said. “This commercial strategy recognizes it as an essential element of contemporary export gains from the United Kingdom.”

Alexander said that the strategy would also harden British trade defenses to prevent him from becoming a victim of the spill and unfair commercial practices in an “increasingly protectionist world”.

The United Kingdom is currently the only country to conclude an agreement with Trump to avoid the worst of its prices. However, he still looks at the effects of the overflows of American-Chinese trade tensions that saw Chinese exports to America drop by 34.5% in May, according to customs data.

“We are going to promote what we can and protect what we owe,” he said. “We will broaden and refine our range of commercial defense tools in our toolbox to be able to respond to unfair competition.”

Alexander said that the strategy would also aim to ensure that small medium-sized businesses export more, in particular to Europe, and to help them navigate the post-Brexit administrative formalities.

Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British chambers of commerce, praised the strategy, saying: “We hit the drum on the commercial strategy for four years and now it’s fashionable. Only 10% of British companies export, and that is not enough. ”

Alexander said that trade policy would try to rely on the UE-UK agreement signed last month, which began to eliminate certain Brexit obstacles from trade, especially in food and animal products and energy markets.

However, the government’s estimates are that the package would create an increase in GDP of only 0.3% in 2040 – a tiny fraction suddenly at 4% in the long term of Brexit GDP estimated by the Budget Liability Bureau.

“I would say that the May 19 agreement was not a single event outside competition, but the start of an annual summary process in the United Kingdom,” said Alexander. “We will continue to speak, continue to work and continue to look for opportunities for British affairs.”

The “hard” approach to trade would also mean continuing to establish commercial links with China. He insisted that Washington had no veto on British policy, despite the United States linking its trade agreement with Great Britain to a more in-depth examination of the role of China in supply chains.

“We remain and will remain a sovereign actor on trade policy,” he said. “We take our responsibility seriously on issues such as investment security and economic security, but these decisions will be made in London.”

Meanwhile, Alexander’s team is in the late stadiums of negotiation of what they hope to be a free trade agreement with the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC.

The unions have expressed concerns that the agreement will not address the problems of workers’ rights in the region, but Alexander insisted that the United Kingdom was trying. “We are looking for legally restrictive chapters in the FTA with the CCG on environmental standards and labor standards.

“You cannot resolve everything in commercial transactions, but it is important that this approach is reflected in your negotiations.”

The Labor government is also looking for trade agreements with Switzerland and South Korea. While the FTA played a role, Alexander stressed that “we cannot afford to be a golfer to a club”.

The new commercial strategy would target more closely targeted digital trade agreements and agreements for mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

When he was asked if the commercial strategy marked a technocratic change in relation to the approach of the “Buccane” recommended by Boris Johnson after Brexit, Alexander said: “I want to design a business-based commercial strategy and not on post-imperial illusions.”