Download Briefing Paper 54 Briefing Paper 54 – January 2021 Emily Lydgate, Erika Szyszczak, L. Alan Winters, Chloe Anthony Key Points Introduction The Constitutional Structure of the TCA Dispute Settlement The Level Playing Field Subsidies Labour and Environmental Standards Precaution Climate Remedial Measures Rebalancing: Dynamic Alignment in Disguise? Significant Uncertainty What does this imply for the long run? Conclusion Annex Key Points The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) has a complex bureaucratic structure, at the apex of which is a Partnership Council. The Partnership Council has powers to amend most of the TCA by mutual agreement, and there will be five-yearly reviews of the operation of the TCA. The UK regime for managing subsidies will be very similar to the EU system; the TCA will allow the UK and EU to challenge each other’s subsidies, ultimately referring disputes to arbitration. On labour standards and the environment, the EU and UK have committed not to weaken standards in ways that affect trade or investment and there is a fairly rigorous procedure for addressing violations. In addition, there are highly innovative procedures for rebalancing the trade elements of the TCA (and ultimately cancelling them) if one side changes its [...]

Download Briefing Paper 49 Briefing Paper 49 – November 2020 Emily Lydgate and Chloe Anthony Key Points Introduction The post-Brexit food standards jigsaw Retained EU law: Consolidating power but allowing divergence Common frameworks: Food law made through collaborative effort The Internal Market Bill: Divergence with a twist How do the pieces fit together? Conclusion Footnotes Key points Post-Brexit food standards governance requires piecing together three new processes with very different – even opposite – implications. Retained EU law gives devolved nations independent control over domestic food standards and allows ministers to make new rules in these areas. Common frameworks aim to create harmonised food standards across the UK. The Internal Market Bill (IM Bill) makes it very difficult for devolved nations to restrict or impede imports from other devolved nations. Putting these pieces together provides a picture that is unfavourable to the regulatory and political autonomy of Scotland and Wales. The IM Bill’s market access requirements could override agreed harmonised standards set out in common frameworks, which are cooperative and consultative rather than legislative. The IM Bill also undermines permitted devolution as England’s larger size and market power may make it difficult for devolved nations to maintain different [...]

Download Briefing Paper 47 Briefing Paper 47 – September 2020 Emily Lydgate and Chloe Anthony Key Points Introduction Setting out a clear strategy Core legislation does not integrate trade-related emissions into the climate target UK Free Trade Agreements diverge in approach and ambition Acting on areas of ‘mutual supportiveness’ Fossil fuel subsidies are non-transparent A positive step for policy coherence: liberalisation of environmental goods Addressing areas of potential conflict Climate change mitigation subsidies in the global context Current UK climate change mitigation subsidies are not ambitious or transparent enough UK carbon pricing is still not high or consistent enough to meet the net-zero target Conclusion Key points To become a world leader in trade and climate policy the UK needs to develop an integrated strategy that enhances areas of mutual supportiveness and addresses areas of potential conflict. Enhancing mutual supportiveness: UK climate legislation does not currently include trade-related emissions. Factoring in aviation and shipping would help to address this problem. The UK’s approach to integrating climate into its new free trade agreements (FTAs), as well as its ‘continuity agreements’ with former EU FTA trade partners, is inconsistent. Notably, continuity agreements are a lost opportunity to update existing trade [...]