Julian Jessop, Chief Economist and Head of the Brexit Unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs, has featured in a BBC Radio 4 Program on trade.

Asked whether the ‘build it in Britain” approach would help protect jobs, Julian said; “The problem with that approach is that you’re talking about protecting existing jobs. If we think about the jobs of the future, they are realistically less likely to be involved in things like manufacturing. They are more likely to be involved in services and in high tech industries. If we constantly focus on protecting what we already have then we miss the sorts of gains that will come from higher productivity and more flexible jobs in the future.

“On top of that it’s protectionist as well. It is is a sort of activist industrial strategy where the government rather than the market decides which sectors and which companies to support which I think is a bad thing. It’s making public sector companies for example buy domestically produced goods and services when foreign goods and services might actually be better.”

Listen to the full program here, with Julian starting at 11.50.

Further Reading: Free trade and how it enriches us