In the aftermath of the UK General Elections, in which the Conservatives won 364 out of 650 seats in House of Commons, the question that arises is what this means for the UK and the EU. “Getting Brexit done” was, after all, the platform on which the Conservatives campaigned. And beyond Brexit, there are wider […]
Read more
Introduction The UK Government hopes that the General Election to be held on December 12, 2019 will solve the parliamentary impasse over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s draft EU withdrawal deal, either by finally securing parliamentary ratification for it or by forcing a No Deal outcome. Opposition parties meanwhile are working together to block Brexit entirely, […]
Read more
The UK parliament has voted to convene elections for 12 December 2019. Whether this will clarify the timing and means by which the UK would leave the EU remains to be seen. What is clear is that trade policy will be, explicitly or implicitly, one of the key electoral issues, for the first time in […]
Read more The European Commission (EC) and the UK Government reached an agreement, on 17 October 2019, on modifications to the Withdrawal Agreement and accompanying Political Declaration they had first concluded in November 2018, but which failed to pass UK parliament. The modifications are less revisions than they are a form of recalibration on the way various […]
Read more
Introduction With the decision taken by the UK government to exit the EU there are a myriad of questions and issues for all sectors of the economy including agriculture, the rural environment and the food economy. Although agriculture is a small part of the UK economy (0.59% of GDP in 2017) its importance is far […]
Read more
A central plank of the UK Government’s Brexit policy is to re-establish an “independent” UK international trade policy following more than forty years of integration into the Common Commercial Policy (CCP) of the European Union. This would have been hard enough technically, even without the ill-tempered stand-off into which the Brexit negotiations have now declined. […]
Read more An “independent trade policy” is one of the main prizes proponents of Brexit wish to claim. The issue was barely mentioned during the referendum campaign. But both the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration state it as one of the main objectives for the UK. And opponents of both frequently point to provisions within these […]
Read more
Once the preserve of trade policy wonks, GATT Article XXIV has entered mainstream political discourse in the UK. Ever since the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK and EU was first voted down in parliament, various political figures (Dominic Raab being the latest) have referred to this Article as paving the way for a “managed […]
Read more
Immigration was one of the key issues of contention in the referendum of 23 June 2016. The desire to limit immigration for the European Union was cited as one of the main factors, if not the main one, motivating the leave vote that prevailed on the day. Since then, the Government has listed the control […]
Read more
President Trump’s state visit has once again brought the question of a UK-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) back into the headlines. The US administration has on previous occasions expressed its readiness to begin negotiations with the UK. And in early 2019, the US Trade Representative’s office released its negotiating objectives. The breadth and depth of […]
Read more