{"text":[[{"start":11.13,"text":"The contribution of trade to UK GDP has “stagnated” because of “persistent underperformance”, the World Trade Organization has said, with the UK’s exports of goods languishing at 17 per cent below their pre-Covid levels."}],[{"start":28.810000000000002,"text":"In its first formal review of UK trade policy since Brexit, the WTO found that UK trade performance had weakened since the 2008 financial crisis, with Brexit named among the chief causes of a marked slump in goods trade since 2018."}],[{"start":50.05,"text":"The WTO noted the “central role” of trade in the UK economy and said the UK must take steps to boost trade if it wanted to improve growth. But its warning came as the UK’s trade minister Sir Chris Bryant confirmed the government was making cuts to export promotion staff."}],[{"start":71.78,"text":"Bryant, who was at the WTO headquarters in Geneva to receive the report, said the government shared the organisation’s assessment of the UK’s challenges, and was seeking to reduce the impact of Brexit through a “reset” of EU-UK relations."}],[{"start":89.07,"text":"He added that while the Labour government wanted to be “as ambitious as possible” in reducing trade friction with the EU, this would only be “within our red lines”, which include not rejoining the EU single market or a customs union or accepting free movement of people."}],[{"start":108.22,"text":"Bryant cited the value of a proposed veterinary agreement with the EU to remove border checks on plant and animal products as providing a boost for British florists that obtain 85 per cent of their cut flowers via the Netherlands. "}],[{"start":125.02,"text":"Still, by the government’s own estimate the reset of EU-UK trade will deliver just 0.3 per cent uplift to UK GDP by 2030 — less than one-tenth of the 4 per cent long-run hit to GDP that Brexit will cause, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. "}],[{"start":145,"text":"On a positive note, the WTO noted that the UK’s high-tech manufacturing sector, including aerospace, green tech and pharma, had retained its comparative advantage in seven out 10 categories where it was most specialised three decades ago."}],[{"start":162.53,"text":"Bryant confirmed that the Department for Business and Trade was implementing 20 per cent staff cuts following last year’s departmental spending review."}],[{"start":172.56,"text":"Two department insiders told the Financial Times that morale had been badly hit by cuts to export promotion teams at a time when the political mantra was to boost the economy. “They’re cutting the sales force, the bit that’s going to drive growth,” one said. "}],[{"start":190.09,"text":"Bryant said he had recently met staff in Buenos Aires and Brasília who had raised concerns, but conceded that the network in Latin America was being “quite substantially cut back” as the UK focused its firepower on maximising benefits of existing trade agreements."}],[{"start":208.22,"text":"“We’re going to have to achieve more with fewer people. It’s just a fact,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that the department has got to lose 20 per cent of staff by 2029 . . . so this is all part of the efficiency that we’ve got to do, and we’ve got to bite the bullet, I’m afraid.”"}],[{"start":238.76000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1761700522_9919.mp3"}