This is a very interesting piece, and it raises questions about the UK’s attitude to post-Brexit trade policy that need to be addressed (indeed, it’s a shame they weren’t three years ago…) 1/
Firstly, the government’s own rhetoric is confusing – as the article notes, with regard to the EU/UK negotiating position, “It’s odd to claim to be campaigning for free trade at the exact moment you are creating new barriers to trade.” 2/ 
That’s not to argue there aren’t legitimate arguments behind Brexit with which we’re all familiar – sovereignty, control, etc – but it is hard to square these with a claim that “free trade” is one’s driving conviction. 3/
Secondly, its unhelpful that some in government seem to have taken 19th Century arguments about free trade as being unblemished and unimpeachable two centuries after they were first proposed. 4/
When we hear Ministers and other advocates of free trade forever talking up “cheaper goods” one wonders if they ever walk down a typical British high street to get a feel for what the retail experience is really like. In the UK choice and price aren't really a problem anymore 5/
So what should be the aim of trade policy in the 21st Century, now that the UK is re-engaging with the world of free trade as an independent player? 6/
Well, if the original exponents of free trade were attempting to answer the profound political challenges of their day – poverty, low wages, inequality (across the world) – then should we not seek to answer today’s challenges. 7/
Inequality, wages and poverty remain challenge, but so do climate change, poor diets, biodiversity decline and animal welfare. These, I'd argue, were not major issues for the great economic thinkers of the enlightenment. But they should be for our political leaders today 8/
Trade policy today should be less about price – incentivising the provision of ever cheaper goods, produced at whatever cost to the planet - and seen more as a lever for encouraging more sustainable models of production and consumption. 9/
That’s the challenge for Global Britain in the 21st Century.
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