IFT’s official aims are to “recapture the moral case for open commerce” and promote free trade. It aims to achieve this through educating civil society; bringing together businesses to assess the impact of trade barriers and their removal; and encouraging policymakers and lawmakers to support trade liberalisation. As well as holding events with high-profile speakers, IFT produces and distributes research aimed at specific audiences. These range from short explainer videos to long academic reports. While founded by a Conservative MEP, the IFT aims to be a non-partisan organisation and has supporters across the political spectrum. For example, Labour MP Graham Stringer wrote the foreword for 'The Left-Wing Case for Free Trade'. However, as it supports the UK leaving the EU in order to pursue an independent trade policy, it has drawn ire from politician's who supported Remain in the EU Referendum. Chuka Umunna described the think-tank as "fanatical hard Brexit-supporting ideologues", while Chris Bryant said that "the IFT may seem like a fringe group of wacky fanatics, but the reality is they are highly influential and are pushing a dangerous agenda."
History
The creation of the Department for International Trade in July 2016 signalled the UK Government’s commitment to pursuing an independent trade policy for the first time since 1975. IFT aims to fill the corresponding gap in UK-based research and expertise on trade issues, to help contribute to a more informed government, legislature, business community and general public. The initiative was launched in the Map Room at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by Boris Johnson, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, in September 2017. The IFT was not charged for the use of the room as the event was deemed to be in support of the Government's objectives on free trade. The IFT was initially named Institute for Free Trade, but changed to Initiative for Free Trade after it emerged that permission to use the title "Institute", which is protected by law, had not been granted by Companies House and the Business Secretary. In October 2017 IFT hosted its first event—the Global Trade Summit —and has supported and participated in the Conservatives International conferences in Miami and Kampala in 2017, as well as La Convención Azul in Buenos Aires. In September 2018, it launched 'An “Ideal” US-UK Free Trade Arrangement’ in conjunction with the Cato Institute and nine other free-market British and American think-tanks. Acted as a proposed template for a future trade agreement between the US and the UK, the paper attracted significant media attention.
