8 June 2020 Professor Erika Szyszczak is Professor Emerita and a Fellow of UKTPO, University of Sussex. Control over state aid is a stumbling block for the future of a EU-UK trade agreement. The EU is seeking dynamic alignment of any future UK state aid rules. This is a bold demand, especially since the EU state aid rules will be in a state of flux in the forthcoming years. But if no agreement is reached there are implications for domestic UK policy. […]
State aid is a delicate issue in the current EU-UK trade negotiations. Whilst the EU is seeking dynamic alignment of any set of future UK State aid rules with the EU rules to maintain a ‘Level Playing Field’ (LPF) in areas relating to access to the Internal Market, the UK takes the stance that it would introduce its own regime of subsidy control. The UK prefers to adopt a more relaxed process for international trade based upon the rules in the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) but relying on WTO rules would not create a robust domestic system of state aid control. To maintain a close trade relationship with the EU, the UK must manoeuvre into a position where it gives effect to a State aid regime equivalent to that maintained by the EU, with an effective and robust independent enforcement process, but the UK has taken a different view. The reaction of the UK Government to the COVID-19 crisis has revealed the need for transparency in the granting of subsidies as well as accountability in procurement and yet the current situation is very opaque. Read Briefing Paper 42: STATE AID: NOT ONLY ABOUT TRADE
28 April 2020 Ian Clarke is CEO of Excalibur Managed Services Limited and Professor Erika Szyszczak is a Fellow of UKTPO. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of global supply chains and the need for robust public procurement policy and procedures. […]
27 March 2020 Erika Szyszczak is Professor Emerita at Sussex Law School and a Fellow of UKTPO. Recent weeks have seen the rapid implementation of measures to manage and maintain EU state aid policy during the COVID-19 crisis. Some Member States, including the UK, have adopted urgent measures to ameliorate damage to their economies. During the transitional period of the Withdrawal Agreement the UK must follow EU law and therefore the responses by the UK Government to the COVID-19 fiscal and economic crisis should comply with EU rules. […]
26 June 2019 Erika Szyszczak is a Research Professor in Law at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of UKTPO The Dispute Mechanism Systems (DMS) in many trade agreements have lain dormant because countries preferred to use the World Trade Organization (WTO), with its Appellate mechanisms, as the forum to resolve international disputes. This may change in the coming years as the confidence in, and reliability of the WTO, is slowly paralysed by the disruptive attitude of the United States. One question that emerges is whether the use of EU dispute resolution mechanisms offer a faster and clearer approach towards dispute resolution and might serve as a model for future regional trade treaties. […]
Download Briefing Paper 30 Briefing Paper 30 – May 2019 Erika Szyszczak Key Points Criticisms and Dissatisfaction with the Existing Investor State Dispute Settlement Opinion 1/17: A Change of Perspective by the CJEU EU Proposals for a Multilateral Investment Court ISDS and EU Competence to Negotiate and Conclude Trade Agreements Opinion 1/17: Endorsement of the ICS by AG Bot and the CJEU The Principle of Autonomy of EU Law (§§106-161) General Principle of Equal Treatment (§§162-186) Principle of Effectiveness (§§185-188) Right of Access to an Independent Tribunal (§§189-244) The Influence of Opinion 1/17 for Future EU Trade Agreements and the ISDS … And Brexit Footnotes Key Points The EU is playing a leading role in the reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement System (ISDS) The EU role is multi-faceted; it is an important player in the current UNCITRAL Working Group III discussions on the alternative models of ISDS; it is developing new forms of trade agreements which include independent courts; and the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has contributed to the endorsement of the legality of new forms of court systems to settle investor-state disputes in modern EU trade Treaties The role of the EU as a [...]
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms have been globally criticised as out-dated and inappropriate fora for the settlement of disputes involving States. Attempted reform is underway at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III, at which the EU is a key player. The role of the EU as a significant moderniser of trade agreements will have implications for the UK in negotiating any future trade deals with the EU. For example, the consequences of the recent Opinion 1/17 on the legality of a new form of court system to handle investor-state disputes in the EU-Canada Agreement (CETA) are significant in analysing how the CJEU was persuaded to reach the conclusion that new judicial fora in international Treaties may be compatible with EU law. The litigation around the modern trade agreements of the EU is a warning signal that conducting trade agreements from scratch with the EU is not painless, with ratification potentially being very prolonged when there are challenges to the agreement at the national and EU level. Read Briefing Paper 30 – Opinion 1/17: Towards A Modern EU Approach to Investor-State Dispute Settlement
30 April 2019 Dr Minako Morita-Jaeger is an international trade policy consultant and an Associate Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory. The UK managed to avoid crashing out of the EU on 12th April for the second time. But this delay extends uncertainty since the possibility of a No-deal Brexit on 31st October remains. The UK’s trade partners have been looking at Brexit uncertainty with great dismay. Japan is not an exception. Here, I highlight how this uncertainty is affecting Japanese businesses in Europe and analyse possible future UK-Japan trade relations based on the three scenarios currently in the UK political debate. This provides an update to the UKTPO blog on UK-Japan relations. […]
11 April 2019 Erika Szyszczak is Professor of Law at the University of Sussex and a fellow of UKTPO. Tempting as it is to work through the lyrics of the Paul Simon song,* the latest round of Brexit talks between the UK and the EU are already translating into the movie: The Long Goodbye. By a Decision adopted on 11 April 2019, the European Council – under the patient and saintly leadership of Donald Tusk – agreed to grant the UK a second extension to Article 50 TEU either until 31 October 2019, or, an earlier date (if the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified) or until 31 May 2019 if the UK fails to hold elections to the European Parliament. The UK has in fact put in place an Order to facilitate the organisation of the elections to the European Parliament. […]
6 February 2019 Professor Erika Szyszczak is a Professor of Law at the University of Sussex and Fellow of UKTPO. The UK Government and Parliament are mired in political manoeuvres on what the post-Brexit trade landscape should look like, but it is business as usual in the European Courts, with a salient reminder that a “No-Deal” Brexit could leave the UK waiting for many years for a legally certain trade agreement with the EU. […]
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