How should a country built on free trade react when its most important trading partners start erecting barriers, as the EU and the US are doing? Or when that free trade starts benefiting the importer to the detriment of its own industry, as is happening with the Chinese?
That conundrum facing the UK was a key theme that this year’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Summit conference, which brought together key car makers and suppliers to discuss how to respond to rapid changes to the trade status quo.