In the run-up to the EU referendum, and in the weeks after it, one of the more absurd promises made was that Brexit was the breakthrough that would allow the UK to reassert its values in a troubled world. The first international trade secretary, Liam Fox, became very excited at thought of the country rejoining the World Trade Organisation as an independent member rather than through the European Union. Britain, apparently, was back.
It will come as a shock to no one, not merely that such an outcome has failed to come to pass, but that the opposite is true. Much was made, and is still being made, about the opportunities to sign new trade deals as an independent country. On countless occasions, we have been told that Brexit means the UK can insist on higher standards; that it enables Britain to make demands, in its negotiations with potential trading partners, on issues that the EU might have overlooked.
More recently, the current international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, has given assurances to the House of Commons that “human rights” would play a role in any future trade deals, especially in those undertaken with Middle Eastern countries and with Gulf states that have a poor record on such matters.
