Prime Minister backs Commonwealth trade

It looks like David Cameron may have been listening to us as he has used an article in today's Daily Mail to explicitly call for more trade with the Commonwealth.

In the piece he writes:

"With some of our neighbours’ economies stagnating and markets further afield roaring ahead, we need to change our approach. We need to go to the ends of the earth to sell our wares – to recapture the outward-looking, enterprising spirit that made us great. 

I want us to be nothing less than the modern world’s most open, trade-minded nation. To do that, we must tap into markets outside Europe; to look to the Commonwealth and beyond. There’s plenty of potential."

Needless to say, we couldn't agree more!

As our Director argued on the CWF blog yesterday, the Commonwealth is ideally suited to be Britain's gateway to the World.

However the Prime Minister's words do need to be backed up with action.

For example, the recent completion of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) is welcome but the process has been consistently delayed and implementation is now unlikely until 2016. This is simply not good enough as the below chart shows.

As we argued in our award winning Brexit prize entry, EU trade deals are taking far too long and either speeding them up or repatriating the ability for Britain to sign our own deals needs to be a top priority.

We welcome the Prime Minister arguing for greater Commonwealth trade but he needs to convince Brussels to do the same.

Sarawak report launch - Lessons from the Commonwealth

We were delighted to launch the first in our Lessons of the Commonwealth series - Sarawak: A Malaysian Economic Story along with its author, Keith Boyfield.

During the evening Keith gave an interesting and balanced speech drawing from his experience gained through his two trips to Sarawak.

The Lessons seek to highlight the successes, the challenges, and what solutions can be exported to other Commonwealth nations to further promote prosperity, democracy, stability, the rule of law and the other myriad of values of our modern Commonwealth.

We were also honoured to have Dr Erik Jensen Former UN Under-Secretary-General and author of Where Hornbills Fly write the foreword to the report where he said:

"Sarawak is, like any country, unique, but the challenges faced following independence, the scope generated by the exploration of fossil fuels, the interdiction of commercial scale crops, problems of corruption, land rights and labour, are all familiar elsewhere. Commonwealth states in Africa and the Caribbean may find relevant the Sarawak experience."

You can download a copy of our report here or click the image across.

Worrying moves by UK government on post study visas

While CX was in Canada, it was announced that the UK government is planning to send non-EU students home after they have completed their studies rather than giving them the opportunity to find work and apply for a new visa while they're here.

CX is obviously strongly opposed to this move and continues to support the reinstatement of the Tier 1 Post-Study Work Visa as proposed in our report "How to Solve a Problem like a Visa." In addition we call for Commonwealth countries to be restored to the Youth Mobility Visa.

What is particularly worrying about this new announcement is that the number of non-EU students is already falling dramatically. The numbers who arrived in the year ending December 2014, was down 25% compared to just four years previously.

Even more worrying is that a large percentage of this fall is due to a reduction in Commonwealth students coming to study in the UK. This number has fallen by nearly 60% in the same period, the lowest year end figure since 2005.

By way of comparison, EU citizens coming to the UK to study has actually seen a small increase since 2010, going up by 3,000.

The UK needs an influx of young, talented, and bright workers and what better place to find them than among the graduates of the UK's world-beating universities?

The point was made well by James Dyson who responded to the proposals here.

However we would (as you might expect) suggest that the Commonwealth should be top of the list for finding potential workers.

The extensive speaking of English across much of the Commonwealth, the use of similar (and often identical) legal and accounting practices, and the cultural ties we share, provide several obvious advantages but one that is often overlooked is the extremely youthful population.

60% of the 2.3 billion population of the Commonwealth are under 30 years of age. In fact one in twelve people alive right now is an Indian aged under 27.

Compare this to England and the figure is almost exactly reversed. 63% of our population is over 30 years of age. Our median age is now 40 years old and is expected to rise continuously for at least the next 20 years.

Commenting on this, CX Director Ralph Buckle said:

"Britain is facing a dangerously ageing population with a spiraling effect on national debt as the burden on state pensions and the NHS only increases.

We need to be seeking out young bright graduates to work here, not driving them away. The Commonwealth would be the perfect place to start.

Contrary to what is often claimed, it looks like British pensioners will be the ones stretching the welfare state in the future, not migrant workers."

All figures are sourced from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

CX is available for comment and interviews. Details of how to get in touch are here.

CX in Canada

The CX team has been in Toronto this week taking part in a number of events to promote Commonwealth connections.

On Monday, our Executive Director Tim Hewish spoke at an event organised by the NATO Association of Canada about our report on security and defence: cooperation: "The Commonwealth's Call to Duty."

We were privileged to speak alongside Canadian Defence Minister the Hon, Jason Kenney MP and the Hon. Hugh Segal (former Senator, Commonwealth Envoy, and member of the Commonwealth Eminent Person's Group). Both were welcoming of our report and it's recommendations which is hugely encouraging and will hopefully help bring them about as soon as possible.

The unedited footage of the whole event is available here. Tim's speech starts here, Hugh Segal's starts here, and Minister Kenney's here.

After the event, the CX Directors took part in the Nato Council's "Talk to a Diplomat" podcast series. You can listen to our episode here.

We were also able to catch up with our Advisory Board members Dr Roy Eappen and Michael Bonner as well as the NATO Council's Robert Baines and update them on CX's progress so far.

Finally, we were also honoured to speak as guests of the Royal Commonwealth Society of Toronto and the United Commonwealth Society. It was great to meet many of the Society's members and in particular to share a platform with Joannes Paulus Yimbesalu, a Cameroonian and a winner of the Queen's Young Leader Award.

New MP James Cleverley quizzes Chancellor on Commonwealth exports

Following George Osborne's statement on Greece yesterday afternoon, James Cleverley MP took the opportunity to press the Chancellor on ensuring the Commonwealth is at the heart of the UK's plan for exports, growth, and diversification away from an over-reliance on the European Union.

He asked:

"I cannot see an outcome to the current Greek situation that will not have a detrimental effect on the British economy. Will he therefore assure this House that as part of the long-term economic plan he will include a commitment to expand and extend our trading relationships globally, particularly to fast-growth Commonwealth economies, to help spread our risk?"

Encouragingly, the Chancellor replied:

"My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Britain is overly dependent on its exports to the rest of the EU. About 50% of our exports go to the EU. We have been working very hard to expand our exports to fast-growing economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Although, in general, UK export performance has been quite disappointing in recent years, that is principally because of the weakness of the European economy. Our export performance to many of these emerging economies has been very much better, and we want to build on that—particularly, of course, our links with the Commonwealth countries."

James is a new MP representing the constituency of Braintree. It's great to see one of the new intake standing up for the Commonwealth and making sure Britain doesn't neglect this vital network!