UK- EU

Enhancement and Enforcement of International Trade Rules: The EU Leads the Way

18 February 2021 Erika Szyszczak is Professor Emerita and a Fellow of the UKTPO. Traditionally, the legal enforcement of obligations was the Achilles heel of bilateral and multilateral international agreements. The EU has signalled that it wants to conduct international trade based upon the rule of law. The demise of the WTO Appellate body since 11 December 2019 has focused the EU into using and bolstering its own Dispute Resolution mechanisms in international trade agreements. The significance of this approach is seen in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the EU and the UK 2020, containing innovative procedures for rebalancing the trade elements of the TCA (and ultimately cancelling them) if one side changes its standards in ways that materially affect trade. Such rebalancing can be triggered in several circumstances, including via periodic reviews of the whole trade relationship. […]

By Erika Szyszczak|2025-07-18T10:12:32+01:0018 February 2021|UK- EU|0 Comments

Wasting time on the level playing field

17 December 2020 Alasdair Smith is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory. If the UK leaves the EU transition period without a trade deal there will be disruption and delay at the borders in the short run; and in the longer run, there will be the economic costs of trade barriers for important parts of the UK economy like agriculture, food manufacturing and the car industry. There will be problems too for the EU. The biggest obstacle to a deal is the arcane issue of the ‘level playing field’. Does this really matter enough to both sides to prevent an agreement? […]

By Alasdair Smith|2025-07-18T10:14:23+01:0017 December 2020|UK- EU|2 Comments

A quick recap on the costs of No Deal

15 December 2020 Michael Gasiorek is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory. Nicolo Tamberi is a Research Assistant in Economics for the UK Trade Policy Observatory. There has rightly been much talk recently about the disruption and economic damage that would result from a No Deal Brexit, and hence the economic importance of avoiding this outcome. This is on top of the economic havoc being wreaked by the Coronavirus pandemic. Despite this, we have seen the Prime Minister suggesting that No Deal would be a ‘good outcome’ for the UK and that the UK would prosper. How can this be squared? […]

By Michael Gasiorek, Nicolò Tamberi|2025-07-18T10:14:59+01:0015 December 2020|UK- EU|2 Comments

Sustaining and Trading Fish in the North

4 December 2020 Professor Erika Szyszczak is Fellow of the UKTPO. The preoccupation in the final stages of the Brexit talks with an industry that contributes 0.12% to GDP and employs less than 0.1% of the UK workforce baffles commentators. Control over “our” fishing waters owes more to maintaining the British psyche rather than economic arguments. Amidst fears that the traditional UK fish and chip supper could be at risk without a fisheries deal with the EU, the UK has put in place a series of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with four Northern fishing nations; Greenland, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. […]

By Erika Szyszczak|2025-07-18T10:15:48+01:004 December 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|2 Comments

UK-EU trade relations: A checklist of 10 key issues

20 November 2020 Michael Gasiorek is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and Director of the UKTPO. Discussions and evaluations on the future UK-EU relationship have been on-going since the referendum of June 2016, and we are close to another milestone – by the end of the year, we will either have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU or no-deal. Note this is a milestone and not the endgame. Whether or not there is an agreement there will still be considerable practicalities to resolve, and no doubt some areas will be open to future negotiation. There is a lot of talk in the press about sticking points (fisheries, state aid and level playing field provisions, dispute settlement) but how good the deal is for the UK will depend on the scope and the depth of what is agreed, and whether some areas are only notionally covered and need to be sorted out in future negotiations. […]

By Michael Gasiorek|2025-07-18T10:16:20+01:0020 November 2020|UK- EU|2 Comments

It’s time to talk digital trade

13 November 2020 Guest blog by Emily Jones, Associate Professor in Public Policy, and Beatriz Kira, Senior Research and Policy Officer, both at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. The Government’s new approach to digital trade deserves close scrutiny. It has described the new digital provisions in the UK-Japan agreement as going “far beyond the EU’s” to make the deal “truly cutting-edge”. Digital trade is a priority in negotiations with the US too. Earlier this week a spokesperson said the UK and US have already agreed provisions on digital trade and data that are “forward-leaning” and argued that this would make a UK deal attractive to the new Biden administration. […]

By Nick Phipps|2020-11-13T16:25:09+00:0013 November 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|1 Comment

UKTPO Third Annual Conference – World Trade Policy: Back to the Future?

Conference programme 2 October 2020 The UKTPO held its third annual conference on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 September. The conference, under the theme ‘World Trade Policy: Back to the Future?’, addressed two of the most important issues in trade policy today. Three presentations explored aspects of the as yet unknown UK trading regime after the end of the transition period, including the impact of uncertainty, the effect of tariff reversals, and the political economy of protection, respectively. Secondly, trade in the 21st century is ever more intertwined with other areas of public policy and, this year, two sessions explored the links between trade and the environment. Lastly, the conference concluded with a Roundtable discussion on trade and economic cohesion in the UK after Brexit. […]

By Nick Phipps|2020-10-02T12:50:13+01:002 October 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|0 Comments

Does Free Trade really work? The Good, Bad and Ugly of Trade

2 October 2020 This Trade Finance Talks podcast was first published on Trade Finance Global on 29 September 2020. Trade is a force for good, but with the current COVID-19 pandemic, the World Trade Organization facing its biggest challenges yet, and a turn towards protectionism in many economies, the current trade outlook is unsettling, and uncertain. The UK’s trading regime after the end of the transition period yields much uncertainty and potential tariff reversals in just a few months. In this episode of Trade Finance Talks, Deepesh Patel and Professor L. Alan Winters discuss the power of good trade policy, how trade negotiations are done, and how to mitigate the negative effects of trade. […]

By Nick Phipps|2020-10-02T10:50:08+01:002 October 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|0 Comments

Parliamentary Scrutiny of Trade Deals: How does the UK Measure Up?

Guest blog by Emily Jones, Associate Professor in Public Policy and Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme and Anna Sands, Research Officer of the Global Economic Governance Programme both at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. 30 September 2020 In the next few weeks Parliament will decide how much scrutiny it has over the UK’s future trade deals. The Trade Bill is currently in the House of Lords, and a series of amendments have been tabled that aim to strengthen Parliament’s role. As things stand, Parliament’s role will be minimal. The negotiation and ratification of international trade agreements falls under the Royal Prerogative – the making of international treaties is one of the few actions that Ministers can take without the approval of Parliament. […]

By Nick Phipps|2020-09-30T08:56:16+01:0030 September 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|1 Comment

Tariff inversion in UK Freeports offers little opportunity for duty savings

28 July 2020 Peter Holmes is a Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex and Julia Magntorn Garrett is a Research Officer in Economics at the University of Sussex. Both are Fellows of the UK Trade Policy Observatory. The Department for International Trade (DIT) Freeports consultation document states duty inversion as one of the four core benefits of a Freeport: “If the duty on a finished product is lower than that on the component parts, a company could benefit by importing components duty free, manufacture the final product in the Freeport, and then pay the duty at the rate of the finished product when it enters the UK’s domestic market.” […]

By Peter Holmes, Julia Magntorn Garrett|2025-07-18T10:29:47+01:0028 July 2020|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|24 Comments

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