They can seem remote from the everyday priorities of people here at home. But at its heart, trade is a powerful way to deliver what people really care about.
To make best use of public funds, we should capitalise on those sectors where we already have a world-leading position.
So how do we get more good, high-paying jobs into poorer areas? One specific opportunity relevant in a lot of Red Wall seats is advanced manufacturing.
As a general set of principles for the UK global aims, we would do well to turn for inspiration and leadership to Churchill and Roosevelt’s Atlantic Charter.
On this day each year, we celebrate the first steam engine hissing into operation. And retain the decisive vision that powers progress.
I hesitate to disagree with Daniel Finkelstein, but city growth has been powered more by smalltown commuters than flat-cap wearing uber-boheminans.
What normalisation should mean is the return to a functioning market economy where our wants and needs are met in today’s circumstances.
This ambitious business case is based on our experiences not only of recovering from the last downturn, but on the successes of the last three years.
We should be aggressively backing UK manufacturing, science and green tech as a key plank of our recovery.
A new economic zone should have its own planning and development policies – with the potential to become a manufacturing powerhouse.
With Brexit negotiations intensifying, the carmakers’ decision to focus on Sunderland manufacturing gives David Frost great leverage.
The Government can avoid worsening it. But that requires as bold a deviation from ordinary policy as the extraordinary relief efforts we saw before.
Here in the West Midlands we are seeing construction resuming, the housing market restarting and our all-important car industry reviving.
It’s time Britain re-established itself as an industrious, manufacturing nation – by strengthening its capacity in Yorkshire and the North-East.
This economic crisis is unlike any we’ve ever seen before, thus it is impossible to make predictions. But already there are signs of who will be most impacted.