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A few important steps forward: the UK-EU strategic partnership
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A few important steps forward: the UK-EU strategic partnership

Blog, International Trade, UK- EU

A few important steps forward: the UK-EU strategic partnership

The current UK Government is focused on delivering economic growth and positioning the UK as an important economic and diplomatic player internationally. The relationship with the EU is probably the most crucial bit in this jigsaw, and the deal struck on Monday, outlined in a “Common Understanding”, indicates the direction of travel: cautiously and selectively rebuilding closer relations with the EU along a number of dimensions, first and foremost on security and defence matters, but also including energy, environmental, and some economic aspects. We will discuss three particular areas that are related to trade in the ‘common understanding’: fisheries and trade in agri-food products, youth mobility, and cooperation on energy markets and carbon emissions, respectively. We explain why the deal delivers in two out of three areas. More could have been done, and with firmer commitments. The document essentially represents a negotiating agenda with mostly aspirational language, whereby the two parties agree to “work towards” certain outcomes and everything has to be finally negotiated. Yet every journey starts with a single step, and the one taken on Monday is a sensible step in the right direction. Fish and food: Significant departures from Brexit A core, perhaps the main, EU demand [...]

By Ingo Borchert, Michael Gasiorek, Peter Holmes, Mattia Di Ubaldo, L. Alan Winters|2025-05-21T18:45:18+01:0021 May 2025|Blog, International Trade, UK- EU|0 Comments

Joining CPTPP – The UK’s big dive into the Indo-Pacific

31 March 2023 Minako Morita-Jaeger is Policy Research Fellow at the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Senior Research Fellow in International Trade in the Department of Economics, University of Sussex On 31st March, the UK announced an agreement in principle to become a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Politically, this is a positive step, especially as the Prime Minister can sell accession as a tangible achievement of the UK’s independent trade policy. But what is the real value of joining the CPTPP, and what are the key issues to examine? […]

By Minako Morita-Jaeger|2025-01-29T15:36:45+00:0031 March 2023|UK - Non EU|3 Comments

Two years since the TCA came into force: What has happened to UK-EU trade?

10 February 2023 Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. Nicolo Tamberi is Research Officer in Economics at the University of Sussex and Fellow of UKTPO. Today, HMRC have released UK trade data for 2022, which we can use to assess UK-EU trade two years after the introduction of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). […]

By Guillermo Larbalestier, Nicolò Tamberi|2024-12-17T14:44:26+00:0010 February 2023|Blog, UK- EU|2 Comments

Is the golden age of Free Trade Agreements over?

7 December 2022 Emily Lydgate, Reader in Environmental Law at University of Sussex and Deputy Director of the UKTPO [1] Figures from the World Trade Organization suggest that the negotiation of new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) peaked in 2008, and has since declined.[2] Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has disavowed FTAs. The UK emerged post-Brexit as an enthusiastic advocate, responsible for much of the 2020 outlying peak in WTO FTA notifications. However, even in the UK, the Trade Secretary recently said: ‘I would like us to move away from the DIT being seen as the Department for Free Trade Agreements and back to the Department for International Trade.’ Having created a so-called spaghetti bowl of FTAs, are the wealthy countries that have driven most FTA negotiations[3] finally running out of noodles? […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-12-07T15:08:54+00:007 December 2022|Uncategorised|1 Comment

The EU’s proposed reforms to Trade and Sustainable Development chapters: a big change, or more of the same?

27 October 2022 Camille Vallier is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Research Fellow in Trade and Sustainable Law at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex. This blog was originally published by Trade 4 Sustainable Development. After having defended a sustainable development approach to trade based on cooperation and dialogue for the past decade, the European Union (EU) announced in June 2022 its intention to tighten its approach. The recent Communication “The power of trade partnership: together for green and just economic growth” presents the EU’s new strategy, which, among other measures, plans to extend the general state to state dispute settlement mechanism to the TSD chapter and to include the possibility of trade sanctions for non-compliance with certain provisions of the TSD chapter. These new measures have been adopted in response to a long-lasting observation that the current system does not enable a full and satisfying implementation and enforcement of sustainability provisions. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-10-27T16:38:40+01:0027 October 2022|UK- EU|1 Comment

New Government, new trade policy?

12 September 2022 Michael Gasiorek is Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Once again, the UK has a new Prime Minister, a new cabinet, and thus a new Secretary of State for International Trade. This is the 4th Secretary of State for trade in five years! […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-09-12T12:45:34+01:0012 September 2022|UK - Non EU, UK- EU, Uncategorised|0 Comments

Freeports: why the sudden excitement?

22 August 2022 Peter Holmes is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Emeritus Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. After time in the shade, Freeports are back in the news. The policy has been embraced and a subject of discourse by both PM candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, as part of their “benefits from Brexit” claims and “levelling up” strategies. There has also recently been concern by some commentators that Freeports risk becoming ‘Charter Cities’. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-08-22T12:43:46+01:0022 August 2022|UK - Non EU, UK- EU, Uncategorised|3 Comments

Six Practical Steps to Strengthen Parliamentary Scrutiny of UK Trade Agreements

Trade and Public Policy (TaPP) Network [1] 13 June 2022 [2] Free trade agreements (FTAs) cover the liberalisation of goods, services, and investment and can have substantial and long-term implications for many areas of public policy, from the environment to public health, from industrial strategy to farming practices. In the UK, parliamentary scrutiny plays an important role in holding the Government to account and ensuring that UK FTAs reflect the public interest, from negotiations to signature, and later, implementation. This blog highlights six ways to further strengthen the process. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-06-13T15:14:33+01:0013 June 2022|Uncategorised|2 Comments

The UK-Australia FTA – Can we call it a good deal?

4 March 2022 Minako Morita-Jaeger is Policy Research Fellow at the UK Trade Policy ObservatorySenior Research Fellow in International Trade in the Department of Economics, University of Sussex The UK signed a bilateral FTA with Australia on 17th December 2021. The Agreement is currently under UK parliamentary scrutiny for a three-month period until the middle of March. This is the first FTA the UK has negotiated with a trade partner ‘from scratch’. The Agreement is potentially an important benchmark for future trade negotiations, notably the ongoing application by the UK for accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-03-04T15:58:48+00:004 March 2022|UK - Non EU|2 Comments

The UK’s new Trade Agreements: Curb your Enthusiasm

8 November 2021 L. Alan Winters is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the UKTP0 and Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. Key Findings: To date, the UK government has signed no new trade agreements relative to what it would have had as a continuing member of the EU. The Government estimates that the two agreements in principle announced this year (Australia and New Zealand) will increase UK Gross Domestic Product by between £200 and £500 million annually – that is, 0.01% to 0.02% (one to two ten-thousandths) of GDP or between £3 and £7 per head of population – and that only after they have bedded down over 15 years or so . We were asked to sum up the economic benefits of the UK’s new post-Brexit trade agreements. Our first observation is that if we take as a starting point the trade agreements that the UK would have been party to as a member of the EU, the government has, to date, signed no new trade agreements! […]

By Nick Phipps|2021-11-08T09:51:54+00:008 November 2021|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|44 Comments

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