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BTC to question ministers on UK-EU trade reset as it launches new inquiry on export-led growth

17 January 2025

As leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch states that the former Government did not have a plan for growth outside the EU, BTC will question trade and Cabinet Office ministers on the UK-EU trade reset.

This session introduces a new inquiry on export-led growth, which is now open to receive written evidence until Friday 14 February. 

The new Government set itself the ambitious mission of delivering the ‘highest sustained growth in the G7’, which it aims to deliver through a ‘modern supply side’ strategy.  

But the UK’s ‘trade intensity’ - exports plus imports as a share of GDP - has not recovered in line with other G7 countries since the pandemic.  

How much does UK trade need to expand to begin to move the dial on the growth mission, and how much will depend on trade with the EU? 

The Government will shortly publish a new Industrial Strategy, backed up by a complementary Trade Strategy to ‘reconnect Britain’ with allies around the world and ‘reset’ our trade and investment relationship with the EU, with strengthened cooperation in areas such as the economy, energy, security, and resilience. 

Scope

Questions to trade minister Douglas Alexander and Cabinet Office minister on EU relations Nick Thomas-Symonds will focus on: 

  • the UK’s current trading position and prospects and where trade fits in the UK’s plans for economic growth  
  • the big asks, trade-offs and security questions to be addressed in the UK and EU as they negotiate with each other, China and the US   
  • potential alignment with Europe on a range of issues from product safety to carbon taxes 
  • preventing the “race to the bottom” with questions over labour, product and professional standards across trading jurisdictions 

What are the EU and UK’s ‘red lines’ on trade now, in areas from fishing policy to youth mobility, that will shape and constrain the new discussions?  

Where does the UK really need to align itself now, on issues from food standards to economic security, to maximise its trade position – and what impact does the UK expect the re-election of Donald Trump, with his threats of trade tariff war, to have on the growth mission?  

And with reports of FCDO ministers heading to EU capitals to bolster the trade reset what role will diplomacy, rather than reaching trade agreements, play?  

Further information

Image: House of Commons