Category Archives: Trade policy

UK solar could be ‘dumping ground’ for products of Chinese forced labour, ministers warned

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Energy bill amendment requires large solar energy projects to prove supply chain free of slave labour

The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.

An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove that their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35%-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain.

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Trade deal with Indian could be a double-edged sword for Sunak

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The position of the PM’s wife as a shareholder in a company that could benefit from an agreement is a major headache for No 10

• Read more: Rishi Sunak faces fresh conflict of interest row of India trade talks

With a general election not far away and the economy still struggling, Rishi Sunak is on the hunt for good news. Next month he will be in New Delhi for the G20 summit – a visit that will be unusually rich with picture opportunities and chances to strike deals. Sunak’s parents are of Indian Punjabi descent and his wife, Akshata Murthy, is a hugely wealthy Indian businesswoman, fashion designer and venture capitalist. In many ways it will be a homecoming for the first Asian couple ever to occupy No 10.

Sunak’s business and trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, has been in India over the past few days, laying the ground for a string of announcements with her G20 counterparts. Inevitably, much of the talk in UK and Indian diplomatic, business and trade circles has been about the possibility of a post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and India. The two governments had hoped to conclude one last autumn but negotiations have dragged on.

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Rishi Sunak faces fresh conflict of interest row over India trade talks

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Exclusive: Labour has called for more financial transparency after it was revealed the prime minister’s wife’s shares could benefit from the agreement

• Read more: trade deal with Indian could be double-edged sword for Sunak

Rishi Sunak faces a new conflict of interest row before a G20 summit in New Delhi next month over claims that his family could stand to benefit financially from a post-Brexit trade deal that he is negotiating with India.

MPs and trade experts say there are concerns at the highest levels of government over potential “transparency” issues relating to his wife Akshata Murty’s shareholding – worth almost £500m – in the massive Bengaluru-based international IT services and consultancy company Infosys.

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UK minister heads to India as post-Brexit trade talks reportedly ramp up – business live

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UK trade secretary Kemi Badenoch is expected to progress talks with Indian counterparts in Jaipur, during a meeting of G20 trade ministers

A UK-India trade deal is likely to stay “tantalisingly out of reach”, one commentator warns.

Striking a deal would be a“game changer” for post-Brexit Britain, Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, says.

Hopes that the UK can give its very sluggish growth prospects a boost with a big trade win this autumn are fading after reports that a major deal with India remains elusive.

It appears that final negotiations have run into the long grass, with thorny issues such as visas for Indian workers still likely to be problematic.

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Labour’s shared values with Democrats will aid UK-US trade deals, says shadow minister

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If both parties win election in 2024, their ideological closeness would make them strong allies, says Nick Thomas-Symonds

Labour’s ideological closeness to the Democrats puts the party in an ideal position to sign trade deals with the US should both parties win their elections next year, the shadow trade secretary has said.

Nick Thomas-Symonds told the Guardian he thought Labour’s shared economic values with the Biden administration meant his party would have more success than the Conservative government has had in making trade agreements across a range of sectors.

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UK Brexit checks on fresh food from EU delayed for fifth time, reports say

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Government source reportedly says there are concerns extra red tape could fuel further inflation

Brexit checks on fresh farm produce coming to the UK from the EU have been delayed for the fifth time, according to reports.

The decision to suspend plans to enforce the controls, which have been applied in the other direction to British exports to the EU since January 2021, is due to be announced imminently, according to the Financial Times.

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Tory MPs expected to back Labour plans to reintroduce animal welfare bill

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Conservative backbenchers plan to speak in favour of opposition motion to force government’s hand

Rishi Sunak is facing a potential headache as backbench Conservative MPs prepare to support a Labour plan to bring back ditched animal welfare policies.

Last month, ministers announced they were dropping the kept animals bill, which was part of the Tories’ 2019 manifesto. The legislation was intended to ban live exports of farm animals as well as clamp down on puppy smuggling and dog theft.

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Tesco boss: food inflation has probably peaked but prices will stay high

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Ken Murphy says higher costs of grocery imports because of Brexit are partly to blame for rising prices

The chief executive of Tesco has said food inflation has probably peaked but warns that prices are likely to stay high.

Ken Murphy, the head of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, said the price of milk, bread, cooking oil and some vegetables such as broccoli had come down this month but inflation continued in other essentials, including rice and potatoes, as aweather issues and locked-in increases in the price of labour and energy continued to bite.

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Sunak to urge G7 support for collective action against ‘economic coercion’

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Leaders expected to form council that will discuss response if states such as Russia and China boycott trade for political reasons

The UK and other G7 countries are planning collective action against Russia and China if they threaten trade boycotts for political reasons, announcing a new body to deal with “economic coercion”.

Rishi Sunak will urge “bold and pragmatic collective action” against hostile states that stop trading with other countries when they disagree with their geopolitical decisions.

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Rishi Sunak arrives in Japan to announce defence pact

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PM also says Japanese businesses have invested £18bn in UK as he visits country for G7 summit

Rishi Sunak has arrived in Tokyo to announce a new defence partnership with Japan and support £18bn of private business deals, ahead of the G7 summit aimed at addressing the threats of Russia and China.

Before the gathering of world leaders in Hiroshima on Friday, Sunak is meeting Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to discuss more defence cooperation in the face of China’s increasing belligerence towards Taiwan.

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Kemi Badenoch flying to Switzerland to discuss post-Brexit trade deal

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Business and trade secretary to meet Swiss counterpart on Monday to boost trade between two ‘services superpowers’

Kemi Badenoch will fly to Switzerland on Monday for talks with her Swiss counterpart on a new post-Brexit trade deal, describing the two countries as “natural trading partners”.

The business and trade secretary is meeting Guy Parmelin in Berne to discuss a “modern” UK-Switzerland free trade agreement (FTA) that would boost trade between two “services superpowers”, she said.

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UK MPs urge minister to do more to free Hongkongers’ trapped savings

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First British ministerial visit to Hong Kong since Chinese crackdown focused on attracting investment

The first British ministerial visit to Hong Kong since the introduction of draconian Chinese security laws five years ago was a chance to demand that China unlock more than £2bn in pensions belonging to British overseas passport holders who fled for the UK, former cabinet ministers have told the Foreign Office.

A letter signed by more than 90 MPs, including 10 former ministers, urges the trade minister Dominic Johnson to do more to release frozen savings belonging to thousands of Hongkongers.

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French trade minister to visit UK after post-Brexit ‘hiccup’

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Olivier Becht says two countries have moved on since tensions with government of Boris Johnson

France’s overseas trade minister will visit London on Wednesday in what is being hailed in Paris as a return to business as usual between the two countries after Brexit and the cross-Channel “tensions” of Boris Johnson’s leadership.

It will be Olivier Becht’s first official visit to the UK since his appointment last year and comes after a warmer relationship was signalled with the meeting of Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris last month.

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James Cleverly in Japan for G7 as UK tilts towards Pacific post-Brexit

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Foreign secretary says ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ is ‘critical to UK’ and releases manga-style cartoons to mark his visit

James Cleverly has arrived in Japan for a G7 foreign ministers’ summit to promote a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, as the UK government steps up its focus on the region after Brexit.

The foreign secretary and his counterparts from countries including the US and France will hold high-level talks on closer security and defence ties in the face of China’s growing assertiveness in the Pacific.

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Pacific trade deal is more useful to Joe Biden than it is to the UK’s economy

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Hailed by Tory MPs as a Brexit benefit, CPTPP membership actually turns the UK into a willing pawn in Washington’s geopolitical game

Tory MPs hailed the UK’s entry last week into the Indo-Pacific trading bloc as a major step on the road to re-establishing Britain as a pioneer of free trade.

It was a coup for Rishi Sunak, said David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, who was excited to be aligned with “some of the most dynamic economies in the world”.

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Kemi Badenoch casts doubt on growth projections for Asia-Pacific trade deal

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Comments threaten to worsen already tense relationship between senior ministers and civil servants

Kemi Badenoch has cast doubt on her department’s projections for how much the Asia-Pacific trade deal the UK government has signed will help economic growth.

The government announced overnight it had joined the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which includes Australia and Japan, after two years of negotiations.

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Sunak evades damaging Commons rebellion as NI Brexit plan passes

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Boris Johnson and Liz Truss among 22 Tory rebels voting against deal agreed with European Commission

Rishi Sunak has escaped an overly damaging Commons rebellion over his revised plan for post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade, winning a vote on the measure with 22 of his own MPs voting against the deal.

Among the Conservative rebels were Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, another former party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, and the former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel and Simon Clarke.

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Sunak draws ire after hailing Northern Ireland’s access to UK and EU markets

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PM criticised for boasting about trade benefits of new deal while denying same gains to rest of UK

Rishi Sunak has eulogised Northern Ireland’s “unique” and privileged position in having easy trade access to both the UK and EU markets – prompting critics to note that this was the case for the entire country before Brexit.

In comments that could potentially antagonise hardline Conservative Brexiters – who suspect Sunak could secretly welcome a shuffle towards closer EU single market access – the prime minister used an event in Northern Ireland to talk up what he called “the prize that is on offer” with his post-Brexit protocol.

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Sunak: True test of Northern Ireland deal will be restoration of assembly

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PM hints that Westminster is optimistic about return of power-sharing after unveiling Stormont brake

Rishi Sunak has said the true test for his new protocol deal will be the restoration of the Northern Ireland assembly, saying citizens “need and deserve” to return to functioning government.

In a hint the government in Westminster is optimistic about the return of power-sharing, Sunak said the new Stormont brake – which would allow the assembly a say over EU law applied in Northern Ireland – would be a key step towards restoring the “democratic deficit”.

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Deal on Northern Ireland protocol ‘could be struck next week’

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Negotiations are in crucial final phase with Rishi Sunak preparing to hold calls with EU leaders

Negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol are in the crucial final phase with a deal possible as early as next week, according to multiple sources.

Rishi Sunak is expected to spend the latter half of the parliamentary recess this week looking at the shape of the deal, with calls pencilled in with EU leaders. However, UK sources stressed that talks were at a delicate phase and there was no guarantee of a final agreement.

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