Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330271 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
CITP Working Paper No. 002
Publisher: 
Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP), University of Sussex Business School, Brighton
Abstract: 
This paper reviews Adam Smith's clearly articulated views about the desirability of free trade and his equally strong view on the necessity of sound institutions and 'the tolerable administration of justice' as key ingredients of successful economic management. It starts with Smith's views on free trade and shows how pertinent they are to today's high-level trade policy challenges. It then considers a more detailed day-to-day instrument of policy – the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). Following Brexit, the TRA was created as an arms-length body for investigating cases for granting temporary import restrictions to specific products according to a reasonably well-defined objective process. The paper demonstrates how, over the first two years of its life, the TRA has been reduced from a useful administrative instrument to a fig leaf for a political process for granting protection to petitioners. Unfortunately, this tendency to displace analytical approaches to policy by purely political ones can now be observed in many activities of UK governance.
Additional Information: 
This paper is being prepared for a Special Issue of the National Institute Economic Review in 2023 to celebrate Adam Smith's Tercentenary.
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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