A New Dawn? The UK’s Emergent Agri-food Trade Strategy after Brexit

Abstract

In 2017, the then United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minster, Theresa May, declared the UK would take on a new leadership role after its exit from the European Union (Brexit) to become the ‘most forceful advocate for business, free markets and free trade anywhere in the world.’ As ‘Global Britain’ the UK would embrace its internationalist heritage, forge new and innovative trading relationships with countries outside the European Union (EU), champion the rules-based order for international trade, and make the case for free markets, free trade and globalisation. Prime Minister May’s speech sent a clear signal to the UK’s trading partners that UK trade policy was about to undergo a radical redesign, although what form this redesign might take was not revealed. Early scholarship explored the possible contours of this new trade policy and developed along two complementary strands: the first identified the legal, economic, and political policy space within which the UK could craft its new trade policy. For example, howWorld Trade Organisation (WTO) rules restricted the use of trade instruments, like trade remedies, non-tariff barriers, and tariff barriers, to deliver UK domestic policy objectives and stimulate export trade; and the ongoing influence of