The UK’s biggest manufacturing lobby called for a Royal Commission to fight back against heavy industrial subsidies from the US and the European Union.
(Bloomberg) — The UK’s biggest manufacturing lobby called for a Royal Commission to fight back against heavy industrial subsidies from the US and the European Union.
Make UK said Tuesday that Britain is the only major economy without an industrial strategy, leaving it at risk of “being squeezed between the substantial impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act” and similar measures from EU leaders reacting to President Joe Biden’s flagship policy.
Royal Commissions, which can be formed and appointed by the government to research and advise on specific topics, were broadly used in the 1960s and 1970s when Britain had an interventionist economic policy that was later reversed by Margaret Thatcher.
Make UK said an independent council should also be set up to oversee any recommendations. Stephen Phipson, Make UK’s chief executive officer, said the government has been “flip-flopping from one initiative to another” in recent years.
Britain’s Conservatives published an industrial strategy in 2018 as then-Prime Minister Theresa May pivoted to a more planned approach to the economy. She created the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which earlier this year was renamed the Department for Business and Trade following a Whitehall shake-up by current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
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Make UK said the department overseeing industrial strategy has changed five times in the past 15 years, a period during which 15 business secretaries have served in government.
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