Britain's post-Brexit trade policy is slowly maturing

THE DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE (DIT) is certainly busy. On January 13th Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international-trade minister, launched new talks with India. Just over a month later, on February 18th, she announced progress towards her goal of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade deal with 11 countries around the Pacific Rim. A digital deal with Singapore is imminent. A cruel observer might dismiss all this as a shallow demonstration of the country’s post-Brexit freedoms. A kinder one might note that, although it is not yet perfectly formed, Britain’s trade policy is at last maturing into a more workable form.

Part of the evolution happened inevitably as Britain moved through the process of Brexit. The first task that DIT faced when Theresa May set it up after the June 2016 referendum was to roll over the free-trade agreements that Britain had signed up to by virtue of being a member of the European Union. Out of 39, it has now managed an impressive 33. But some of these were done only by agreeing to temporary provisions and delaying a full renegotiation. Now, negotiators are working out where they need to tidy up, which in general means reviewing the biggest and oldest FTAs. The agreement with Mexico, for example, is ripe for an update, as its provisions on services do not...