The deceptive trade figures were also shared by the Conservatives and a number of Tory MPs on Twitter.
On November 2, the levelling up secretary shared a tweet, which bragged that the UK has secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016. A poster-type graphic with a Union Jack in the background, read: “That’s over £800 billion worth of new global trade.”
Gove, who returned as a member of the cabinet when Rishi Sunak became prime minister, added: “It’s International Trade Week – and just to confirm – I don’t think people in this country have had enough of exports.”
The same graphic was shared by the Conservative Party’s Twitter account, and a number of Tory MPs, including Kemi Badenoch, the trade minister, and Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi.
Some digging by the independent fact-checkers and campaigners Full Fact, found that implying that the trade deals account for £800bn in ‘new’ global trade is misleading. This is because the amount is the total value of trade with these countries, not the additional amount that can be attributed to free trade deals themselves.
“Additionally, most of these trade deals effectively mirror deals that UK was party to as a member of the EU prior to Brexit,” says Full Fact.
‘Rollover deals’
The Department for International Trade (DIT) confirmed that the UK has signed trade deals with 71 non-EU countries, as well as one with the EU. When the Brexit transition period had come to an end, those existing trade deals ceased to apply to the UK and were replaced with these ‘new’ deals, Full Fact informs, adding that these deals are sometimes referred to a ‘rollover deals.’
The fact checking organisation refers to a report by the BBC in September that Britain had signed rollover deals with 69 countries which it had traded with under the terms of EU agreements prior to Brexit. The government has said that to preserve continuity in its trading relationship with other countries, it “developed new bilateral agreements that replicate, as far as possible, the effects of the UK’s existing trade agreements with existing partners, through its previous membership of the EU”.
As Full Fact states, simply describing them as “new free trade deals” lacks some context.
“Whether or not all the UK’s trade deals should be called ‘new’, it’s misleading to claim they account for ‘over £800bn worth of new global trade’.
“This figure refers to the total value of trade (both imports and exports) in 2021 between the UK and the countries it has a trade deal with (71 non-EU countries, including those the UK has agreed both the rollover and entirely new deals with, and the EU), which DIT told Full Fact is worth approximately £816bn, based on figures published by the Office for National Statistics.
“So it’s not the amount of ‘new’ trade with these countries that has come about since 2016,” said Full Fact.
David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project, confirmed the inaccuracy of the claim, saying:
“[£]800bn was the total trade under [free trade agreements], in which case this is in no way ‘new global trade.’”
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit – Chris McAndrew – Creative Commons
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