Download Briefing Paper 52 Briefing Paper 52 – January 2021 Yohannes Ayele, Michael Gasiorek, Peter Holmes, Anna Jerzewska, Suzannah Walmsley Key Points Introduction Tariffs Customs and Trade Facilitation Rules of Origin Mutual Recognition of Testing and Certification Fisheries Conclusion Key Points The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) offers complete elimination of tariffs and quotas providing firms can prove their goods satisfy the rules of origin requirements, and providing no measures are introduced for other purposes such as trade defence or ‘rebalancing’ measures. The rules of origin are complex, bespoke and compared to those used on other EU agreements they differ in terms of distribution and details. In some cases, they appear more liberal than those used in the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean(PEM) system, in other cases the reverse applies. Customs and trade facilitation in the TCA is comprehensive and broad and provides for the possibility of close cooperation in order to facilitate bilateral trade between the UK and the EU. There is no chapter on the mutual recognition of conformity assessment (to standards), although there are some minor elements of mutual recognition, for example, with regard to automobiles and self-certification for least sensitive products. This will raise the bureaucratic complexity and [...]

Download Briefing Paper 43 Briefing Paper 43 – July 2020 Peter Holmes, Julia Magntorn Garrett, L. Alan Winters Key points Introduction Trade in Goods – Rules of Origin Trade in Goods – Technical standards (TBT) Trade in Goods – Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary regulations (SPS) The Level Playing Field (LPF) and Government Procurement Trade in Services and Investment Three areas of difficulty The Temporary Movement of Natural Persons Conclusion Key points Both the UK and the EU have now published their draft texts for a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. The UK’s draft Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU is very different from the vision implied in the Political Declaration which the UK and EU agreed as the basis of their future negotiations. The various points of divergence would require long and complex negotiations to resolve. In some areas the UK is unwilling to agree such deep integration as the Political Declaration foresaw and which the EU is seeking; the most infamous of these is the so-called level playing field, but it also includes government procurement rules. The UK protests that these are not consistent with the ‘ordinary’ FTA that it seeks with the EU. In other areas, the [...]

Briefing Paper 34 Download Briefing Paper 34 Peter Holmes, J. Brad Jensen, Emily Lydgate, Stephen Weymouth, Rorden Wilkinson, and L. Alan Winters Key points Introduction Brexit uncertainty The backstop and the issue of running two standards books Is a deal even possible? US negotiating guidelines What does USMCA foreshadow for a future US-UK trade agreement? What is the US’ likely strategic position on services? The changing market for US MNC foreign affiliate spending Conclusion Footnotes Key points Given the current political turmoil in the UK, a quick and economically significant outcome to US-UK trade negotiations seems unlikely. A great deal depends on the degree of alignment that the UK keeps with the EU on tariffs and regulations. Despite the current aggression towards the European Union, it is far from inevitable that the UK will cut its ties significantly. Aligning UK rules with those of the US, as per the US negotiating objectives, would create divergences with the EU and inevitably create extra frictions at the UK-EU border. The so-called Level Playing Field requirements, as set out in the backstop of the Withdrawal Agreement, constrain a potential UK-US agreement. The renegotiation of NAFTA into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement provides several insights [...]