Borderlex Academy: Trade Policy – The rules that shape the UK’s cross-border trade
Date and time: 27 March @ 14.30 – 28 March @ 17.00
Location: In-person near Holborn Station, central London and online
Request details and pricing at subscriptions@borderlex.net – Subscriber and group discounts available
Cross-border transactions never happen in a legal vacuum. Businesses and governments are becoming more aware of these rules – or their absence – when the system is starting to show cracks. The UK is gradually finding its role in the global trading system post Brexit – but will continue to face headwinds as global big-power rivalries sharpen. All this comes at a time when supply chains have never been as integrated, the climate agenda is upending established ways of conceiving trade policies and digital and robotics open new opportunities but also challenges for the governance of international trade.
At the 2023 Borderlex Trade Policy Academy, you will be able to:
- Get your head around the foundations of the global trading system as the economy shifts towards the Asia-Pacific
- Understand the dynamics shaping UK trade relationships with its large next-door neighbour, the EU
- Discuss new geopolitical realities, tech and environmental policies and how they are shaping the way we will trade across borders in future
- Hear directly from practitioners and seasoned observers and analysts of trade policy in the UK, Europe and beyond
- Mingle and exchange views with fellow UK or UK-interested practitioners and stakeholders from business, civil society and governments in the area of trade policy.
Speakers and session leaders:
- Simon Manley – Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the UK to the WTO and UN in Geneva
- Chris Horseman – Deputy Editor at Borderlex
- Iana Dreyer, Founder & Editor at Borderlex
- Deborah Elms – Asia Trade Centre
- David Henig – Director at ECIPE
- Fergus McReynolds – Director of EU Affairs, Make UK
- Emily Lydgate – Reader in Environmental Law, Deputy Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory
PROGRAMME
| DAY ONE | ||
| 13.30 | Registration, coffee and arrival | |
| 14.00 | Welcoming Remarks | Iana Dreyer, Founder and Editor, Borderlex |
| 14.10
|
Is the World Trade Organization still worth it?
· World Trade Organization and its crisis · Dispute settlement and enforcement · Plurilateral agreements: a way out? · The global subsidy race: what next?
|
Guest speaker:
Simon Manley, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the UK to the WTO and UN in Geneva
Session moderated by Chris Horseman, Deputy Editor, Borderlex |
| 15.00 | Asian century: Asia Pacific and the digitalization of trade
· Underlying dynamics shaping trade policy in the region · Asia-Pacific trading arrangements – CPTPP, RCEP, ASEAN · Digital Economy Agreements/Digital Partnerships · IPEF: the new kid on the block? · Prospects for UK trade agreements with India and joining CPTPP
|
Remotely from Singapore: Deborah Elms*, Asia Trade Centre |
| 16.15 | Coffee Break | |
| 16.30 | China, Trump and war in Ukraine – shifts in EU trade policy and implications for the UK
· EU ‘Strategic autonomy’, industrial policy, and green trade · EU Legal enforcement of WTO rules and FTAs · US trade policy under Biden and transatlantic trade relationships: cooperation or friction · Is there a role for the UK on the transatlantic trade beat?
|
Iana Dreyer, Founder and Editor of Borderlex |
| 17.45 | End of Day 1 – Reception | |
| DAY TWO | ||
| 9.30 | Arrival and coffee | |
| 10.00 | Morning session on EU UK trade relations
10.00 Dealing with the big neighbour next door · Scenarios for EU UK trade relations in the coming years · EU UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: what it is, what it isn’t · Are there alternative cooperation channels to the TCA to smoothen bilateral trade relationships? Followed by short break 11.30 Case study on working with the EU post Brexit: · Implementing the EU UK TCA: can trade be smoothened out after the Brexit disruption? · Initial experience with the new TCA institutions and committee work |
David Henig, Director at ECIPE
Fergus McReynolds, Director of EU Affairs, Make UK
|
| 12.30 | Morning session ends | |
| 12.30 | Lunch break | |
| 14.00
|
Panel: Environment policy vs trade policy?
· Carbon border taxes: EU’s CBAM and other initiatives – implications for trading partners · A paradigm shift in trade policy thinking: free trade vs production-and-processing methods? · Conciliating free trade and greening the economy: FTAs, ACCTS, tackling harmful subsidies (fisheries, fossil fuels….) · The UK in all this
|
Emily Lydgate, Reader in Environmental Law, Deputy Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory
|
| 16.00 | End of programme | |
