International trade involves a multitude of highly technical issues, many of them covered by WTO and other international agreements. From technical standards to Rules of Origin to investment regulations, the UK will need to develop its own policy positions and operational procedures.
Our Thematic Issues section presents current thinking on some of the most important issues the UK and its trade partners will face after Brexit.
Commentary
The EU’s new approach to trade policy is based around the idea of “strategic autonomy”. The expression covers a number of proposals. One set of proposals reflects the EU’s desire to punish trade partners for “bad behaviour”. This might include state financial support to businesses that the engage in mergers and acquisitions in the EU; […]
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In our post entitled Brexit and the Irish border issue dated 9 February 2018, we wrote: The Issue of Brexit and the Irish border – how to avoid creating some form of border within the island of Ireland – has emerged as one of the most difficult in the entire Brexit negotiation. Three and a […]
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The clock continues to tick down one negotiations between UK and the EU. Bot parties are trying to bridge their differences in order to finalise an agreement on trade that will take effect from 31 December 2020, when the UK leaves the EU’s single market and common customs regime. “No deal” still remains a prospect, […]
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8 October 2019
Geneva, Switzerland
TKE Partners, Frontier Economics and the UK Trade Policy Observatory co-hosted a working session on “Rethinking Services Trade in a Digital World”, at the World Trade Organisation’s 2019 Public Forum in Geneva.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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13 June 2019
London, UK
The UK’s approach to agriculture and trade is set to change after Brexit. The Agriculture Bill currently before parliament looks set to overhaul a number of aspects of policy. We look at some of the key policy and commercial issues.
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With the UK parliament showing little sign of resolving its differences of opinion with itself on the UK’s departure from the EU, the UK government has published a list of customs duties that would apply “temporarily” in the event of a “no-deal“ exit. The government says that under such arrangements 87% of imports to the […]
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Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU create a “policy externality”. That is, their outcome will have effects on third parties that have no direct say in the negotiations. The scope for these externalities increases the more these parties are dependent on the UK and EU for their trade, and the bigger the share […]
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