David Cameron: British foreign policy must focus on trade and investment deals

12 April 2012

British foreign policy must be more focused on winning trade and investment deals, David Cameron demanded today amid suggestions that the Government could start to recruit corporate leaders as diplomats.

The Prime Minister announced that he was appointing a civil servant with expertise in business to head the Foreign Office and that the department would also recruit a commercial director to co-ordinate the trade push.

And it is expected he could go further with the effort to "refashion" foreign policy by opening up some key senior Whitehall and diplomatic positions to outside experts rather than career civil servants.

Mr Cameron spoke out as he visited New York for meetings with financial and business leaders aimed at showing the UK was "open for business" and encouraging inward investment.

Next week he will lead a trade delegation to India as part of what he says is a "messianic" drive to secure the foreign deals to help push economic recovery in the UK.

The new Permanent Secretary at the FCO will be Simon Fraser, who has been the top civil servant at the Department for Business since May 2009 and is described by Mr Cameron as "Britain's leading expert on trade in the Civil Service".

He has already worked at the FCO as its senior official on international economic issues and spent four years as chief of staff to Peter Mandelson when he was European trade commissioner.

It is thought that the post Mr Fraser will vacate - Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business - could be one of those targeted by the Government as a potential opening for an outside figure.

"I want to refashion British foreign policy, the Foreign Office, to make us much more focused on the commercial aspects... making sure we are demonstrating Britain is open for business," the PM told reporters.

"I think it is a big opportunity. As we come out of recession and into recovery we have got to pay our way in the world and I want to reorientate the Foreign Office to be much more commercially-minded."

He went on: "I want us to be much more focused on winning orders for British business overseas, attracting inward investment back into Britain.

"I want to make sure that whenever any British minister, however junior, is meeting any counterpart, however junior or senior and for however short a time, they have always got a very clear list of the commercial priorities we are trying to achieve, whether that is pushing forward British orders, attracting inward investment or promoting bilateral or unilateral trade talks.

"This is extremely important for Britain as we come out of recession and go into recovery."

In New York he met chief executives from banks and other investment firms for a round-table discussion at the Nasdaq stock exchange and addressed business leaders at a private dinner hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

He told them: "We're coming out of recession. We've had this appalling banking crisis. The public are feeling battered and bruised by everything that's happened.

"They are asking fundamental questions about our market economies. And as politicians we need to explain what the right path ahead is for our countries.

"So those of us who support the free market economy need to explain how we are going to chart the path for success in the future. For me it's about three things: lower deficits, freer trade and responsible business."

Mr Cameron said he was committed to fighting for a revived world trade deal, saying it could add 150 billion dollars (£98 billion) to the world economy and dismissing protectionist fears.

"The whole point about trade is that you're baking a bigger cake. Everyone can benefit from it.

"So I come here to New York to stand up for free trade, to promote more trade and more investment between our two countries and with other countries around the world too.

"As a new Government, we're absolutely focused on reopening Britain for business. We want to make Britain the best possible place to invest in and to trade with.

"And I'm passionate about what Britain can offer: our timezone, the English language, the easiest access to the European market, some of the best universities, one of the most business friendly-governments and more."

Pointing to plans to cut corporation tax to 24% and to reduce red tape, he told them: "With these changes, I passionately believe that we can go further and faster in expanding the trade and investment between our two countries."

Urging business leaders to show social responsibility, he said they had to recognise they paid a price for unemployment, family breakdown and environmental "failure" in higher taxes and tougher regulation.

"To those who think that arguing for responsible capitalism is somehow anti-market, I say you're wrong.

"This is not some sort of attempt to bring in socialism via the back door. It's the right way to defend the free enterprise system in the 21st century."

A private meeting was also scheduled with the chief executive of Pfizer, Jeff Kindler.

Mr Cameron said he wanted the meeting because Pfizer was "a massive investor in Britain and I am very keen to make sure that that continues and grows".

At the end of his two-day visit to the US, the PM was also scheduled to hold wide-ranging talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in