The last limp gambit of the Tory campaign was a promise to revive the Board of Trade. As a way of grabbing attention and diverting the ‘Corbyn’s not such a bad bloke’ tendency, you’d have to say it lacked oomph. But was it a good idea? First formally constituted in 1696, the Board itself ceased meeting long ago but the title of ‘President of the Board of Trade’ persists: Michael Heseltine relished using it when he was trade and industry secretary, and it was held before the election by the invisible Liam Fox in his role as would-be negotiator of the trade deals Britain isn’t allowed to negotiate until Brexit is complete.
Now Theresa May proposes a network of nine UK trade commissioners dotted around the world. That sounds more useful than having a gone-tomorrow politician like Fox, or an embarrassment like Prince Andrew, blundering around — but will the commissioners make a blind bit of difference, or will they just eat another slice of budget that might otherwise have been spent on elegant embassy parties?
The truth is that our future trade depends first on the long-term strength or weakness of the pound; secondly, on WTO tariffs and whatever terms, punitive or pragmatic, Brussels is prepared to agree for our post-Brexit exports into the EU; thirdly and crucially, on the quality of the goods and services we seek to sell and the willingness of UK companies to invest in product development. In that sense, creating the right conditions for business at home — in terms of tax, red tape, skilled labour and R&D support — will be vastly more important than sending token civil-servants-turned-salesmen abroad.
The next Chancellor
Philip Hammond, whose business experience includes overseas consultancy work for the World Bank, would make a dignified President of the Board of Trade if, as has been widely predicted, he’s no longer Chancellor by the weekend.
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