(Photo Credit: Department of International Trade)

The Secretary of State for international trade, Liz Truss, is to give a keynote speech to an online forum next week, and answer questions on trading through the COVID-19 crisis.

How to build resilience and diversity in supply chains and prepare for post-virus economic recovery will be key themes of her talk and Q&A at 11am-12 noon on Thursday, 23 April.

Attendance at the webinar, hosted by the British Chambers of Commerce, is for BCC members only.

However, the Daily Update will feature a report on the minister’s speech and Q&A in the Thursday bulletin.

US talks delayed

The minister’s address to the international trade community next week will come after talks with the US government on a post-Brexit trade deal have been postponed.

The Daily Telegraph reported that more than 100 politicians and negotiators were due to sit down in Washington DC over several days to discuss a trade deal between the two countries.

However, for both governments, managing the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic fallout have taken precedence over a US-UK trade deal, the newspaper said.

Unfair trade practices

In early March, the minister called for a new crack-down on unfair trade practices and protectionism at the World Trade Organization.

Liz Truss hit out at “industrial subsidies, state-owned enterprises and forced technology transfer” as she made the first speech by a British minister at the WTO since the UK became a member in its own right.

She told 164 Ambassadors from around the world at the Organization’s General Council meeting in Geneva on 2 March that it is critical for nations to work together to reform the WTO.

She talked of “free, fair, rules-based international trade, pioneering a route to prosperity that lies through working together, not protectionism”.