Liam Fox’s nomination to become the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation – and Global Britain – received a significant boost yesterday, just two days after his formal appointment to the competition by the PM. Speaking to a Chatham House event last night, the US Trade Secretary Robert Lighthizer told the audience Fox was “one of the favourites”, lavishing praise:
“I’m an admirer of his … I’ve had many a conversation with him. I’ve even had the occasional cocktail with him. He’s smart, he knows the area, he has a good philosophy.”
Last month Lighthizer told lawmakers the US is looking to back “someone who understands the nature of the problem of free economies dealing with China”, which may not be too difficult a manifesto for Fox to get on board with, given the UK’s shift away from warm relations over Hong Kong, and an impending u-turn on Huawei. Fox wasn’t one of the favourites before, however such praise from the world’s largest economy can’t hurt…
Prince of Darkness Peter Mandelson is back from the dead, perhaps awakened by the same Blairite resurrection that’s directing Sir Keir’s Labour leadership. Today he has launched a campaign to be selected as the UK’s nomination for the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation. That’s the same Lord Mandelson who during the EU referendum claimed Brexit would leave Britain with “no real trade negotiating capacity”…
Writing for the Times today, Mandelson explains that the global economy over the last 30 years has been one in which “corporate strategists have concentrated on finding new markets and minimising costs”. As explained by a pre-eminent corporate global lobbyist…
The former EU trade commissioner claims the state of global trade – and the WTO – is “not in good health and needs fixing”, arguing his main virtues would be:
- Trade liberalisation, as something that advances economic progress
- Fair negotiations with respect for less developed economies
- Consciousness of trade’s human, social and environmental consequences
Given he’s up against pro-Brexit, former trade secretary Liam Fox – whose team is currently directing journalists’ inquiries straight to the official No. 10 press office – the term ‘non-starter’ seems like an understatement…
Remainer MPs can stamp their feet as much as they like, no deal is still the legal default and there’s nothing they can unilaterally do to prevent it…
The latest OECD figures show that the UK has held on to its top spot in Europe for Foreign Direct Investment yet again – only the US and China surpass the UK globally. The UK’s inward investment stock totalled $1.89 trillion by the end of 2018. More than double Germany’s $920 billion – in fact it’s more than Germany, Spain and Poland combined…
Liam Fox blasts “those who would talk down Britain’s economic performance” saying that they’ve been “proven wrong once again”. It comes on top of EY revealing earlier this month that the UK has now also become the world’s most attractive destination for M&A activity, overtaking the US for the first time. So much for George Osborne’s warnings about foreign investment collapsing after a vote to Leave…
This morning Graham Brady distributed a letter from Liam Fox to the Parliamentary Conservative Party explaining the clear disadvantages of signing up to the Customs Union. Perhaps Labour MPs ought to read it too…
Fox explains that by signing up to a customs union, that the UK would be stuck in the worst of both worlds, both unable to set its own international trade policy and subject without representation to the EU’s whim. “The UK would have a new role in the global trading system – we ourselves would be traded.”
There would also be no point in a Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade if the UK can’t negotiate trade deals…
Fox has a point, the direction in opinion polls is not encouraging for Brexiteers…
