UK to dip into £11­-billion aid budget to push trade deals

LONDON: Britain is planning to use its £11 billion (almost ₹1 lakh crore) aid budget to bolster trade deals with countries, in a post-Brexit push, according to a

LONDON: Britain is planning to use its £11 billion (almost ₹1 lakh crore) aid budget to bolster trade deals with countries, in a post-Brexit push, according to a media report.

HT Image

Britain’s newly-appointed Indian-origin minister for international development, Priti Patel, will be leading this policy initiative, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

“Britain’s international aid commitments mean it gets fantastic access to foreign leaders all round the world. We can leverage existing relationships to strike trade deals. The Department for International Development (Dfid) can be used to improve Britain’s standing in the world. It will be a completely fresh way of looking at Britain’s aid budget,” the newspaper quoted a political source as saying.

Patel has reportedly already held meetings with Liam Fox, the new UK international trade secretary, to discuss how they can use Britain’s foreign aid budget to bolster trade deals.

Britain is committed to spend around 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid but India had ceased to be a recipient country in December 2015, when the India-UK aid relationship was modified into one of project-based “technical assistance”.

“Successfully leaving the EU will require a more outward-looking Britain than ever before,” Patel had said.