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The Times They Are A-Changin’ — But What Does this Mean for Future UK Foreign and Trade Policy?
By Stuart Carroll
It was Bob Dylan, with all his melody and jingly jangly brilliance, that pronounced to the world that “the times they are a-changin’”. How true and apt this artistic masterpiece is to the world today. The coronavirus crisis, with all its unprecedented ramifications, has delivered changing times with no immediate and clear endpoint. It has also placed the importance of global public health under the microscope and the relative effectiveness of the UK Government’s response. Once through this crisis, there will rightly be a full autopsy of decisions made and lessons learnt. In doing so, a light must also be shone on Britain’s foreign and trade policy, not least because this uncompromising virus has accentuated just how interconnected our world is and how the future will now demand a “new normal”. Yet before that autopsy takes place, there are some key items that should be on the diagnostic list to start the process of reshaping future UK international relations. Indeed, this crippling pandemic has highlighted weaknesses and deficiencies in the UK’s relationship with the rest of the world. This is most notably the case in terms of trade policy, manufacturing and supply chain, which in turn have undermined the UK’s speed and quality of response.
