In this Briefing Paper, Ruby Acquah, Mattia Di Ubaldo, Michael Gasiorek introduce a set of new indices that capture the regulatory obligations for products exported to the EU’s Single Market, and provide a background discussion of product regulations and directives and their impact on international trade. Read Briefing paper 80: REGULATORY INTENSITY AND THE EU SINGLE MARKET: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UK.

This year, the UK Government will replace its current preferential trading scheme for low and lower-middle income countries with the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). This Briefing Paper looks at and evaluates two key changes in the DCTS: changes in the eligibility criteria for the Enhanced Preferences sub-scheme, and changes in the rules of origin to use preferences under the Comprehensive Preferences sub-scheme offered to Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Using a novel RoOs Restrictiveness Index, the authors find that the RoOs under the DCTS are, on average, less restrictive than those under the former scheme. They also conclude that most benefits are likely to be accrued by LDCs both in the short and long term due to more lenient rules of origin, extended cumulation rules, and being eligible for the Enhanced DCTS if they graduate from LDC status. Read Briefing Paper 74: THE UK’S NEW (AND IMPROVED?) DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TRADING SCHEME

Post-Brexit, the UK will offer preferential market access to developing countries under a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). To allow developing countries to export to the UK after it leaves the EU on the same terms as the present, the UK Government’s plan is to replicate the GSP of the EU. This paper shows that simply rolling over the EU’s GSP, in particular, the rules for preferences removal (graduation), will determine changes in market access due to the uneven distribution of developing countries’ trade between the UK and the EU27 bloc. The country most affected would be India, which would lose trade preferences in the UK on a volume of trade worth approximately € 1.27 billion per year. Adjustments to the GSPs of both the UK and the EU, necessary to avoid the loss of trade preferences, are also discussed. Read Briefing Paper 32 – A POST-BREXIT GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES FOR THE UK: HOW TO GUARANTEE UNCHANGED MARKET ACCESS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?