Sir Vince Cable, the former business secretary, is among dozens of figures urging Kemi Badenoch to make the government’s Board of Trade an independent body and give it a slate of new responsibilities.
Sky News has seen a letter coordinated by the UK Trade and Business Commission, a cross-party business group, to Ms Badenoch in which more than 80 signatories call for the Board of Trade to be formally tasked with monitoring Britain’s international trading performance.
Among those supporting the demand are Paul Drechsler, the former CBI president; Sir Peter Westmacott and Lord Darroch, former British ambassadors to Washington; Peter Norris, the chair of Virgin Group; Juergen Maier, the former chief executive of Siemens UK; and Alan Winters, an economic s professor at the University of Sussex.
“This new Board of Trade should be responsible for a range of tasks including analysing the UK’s trading performance, conducting impact assessments of new trade deals, and overseeing the implementation of existing agreements to identify areas where they can be improved,” the letter said.
“The agency should also monitor how UK nations and regions are affected by international trade agreements and conduct horizon scans to identify emerging issues of importance to UK traders and consumers.”
The letter comes in the wake of a Sky News report this month which revealed that Ms Badenoch was lining up the boss of Universal Music Group and the fashion designer Anya Hindmarch to join a revamped government Board of Trade.
Ms Hindmarch, the UMG chairman and chief executive Sir Lucian Grainge and Tim Bevan, the co-founder of film producer Working Title are expected to be appointed to the panel.
One Whitehall source said an announcement is likely next week.
The Board of Trade was originally established as a vehicle for promoting international trade links in the 17th century, but was dormant for decades until its revival in 2017.
Ms Badenoch serves as its president, and is said to be keen for it to gain greater prominence under her stewardship.
Comprising different membership, it has already met since she took on ministerial responsibility for international trade.
The UKTBC, which comprises MPs from all nine Westminster parties, along with business leaders and economists, scrutinises UK trade deals and provides recommendations to the government.
It said making the Board of Trade independent in a similar way to the Office for Budget Responsibility was especially important because “trade as a percentage of UK GDP fell by 11% in the first year following the implementation of the government’s Brexit deal, with evidence suggesting that it was a critical factor in increasing costs and bureaucracy for British businesses when trading with the UK’s largest trading partners in the EU”.
“The government’s only two meaningfully new trade deals since the UK’s departure from the EU have also proven controversial, with the UK agreeing to terms that disproportionately benefit Australia and New Zealand exporters to the detriment of British farmers,” the organisation said.
Last month, Ms Badenoch travelled to India ahead of the G20 summit there to hold renewed talks about a trade deal between the two countries.
The identity of the remaining members of the Board of Trade is unclear but is expected to be disclosed in a formal announcement.
Dame Rosemary Squire, the theatrical entertainment entrepreneur and signatory to the letter, added: “As with the OBR, any meaningfully revamped Board of Trade would be independent of government, and able to publish assessments of the likely impact of future trade deals or changes to our deal with the EU, on different sectors, regions and nations of the UK.”
