News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
There are ‘dark clouds’ hanging over the current free trade negotiations between the EU and Australia, with data flows and beef quotas currently ranking as probably the two most difficult issues to resolve, according to Brussels insiders. Services offers A sixth round of negotiations between the two sides was held …
Striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States will be one of the top priorities for newly-reappointed International Trade Secretary Liz Truss over the coming months. But it will be a daunting task for the UK to agree a comprehensive FTA with the world’s most powerful economy. No date …
The government in London has kick-started its post-Brexit trade strategy discussions with the launch of a public consultation process on the tariffs to be applied on imports after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union’s customs union on 31 December this year. Interested parties have been given four weeks to …
The United Kingdom’s first full week as an ex-EU member state has dawned with the British government sounding a belligerent note towards Brussels – and with renewed concern about a possible regulatory ‘cliff-edge’ for businesses if the UK and EU are not able to agree at least an outline trade …
London is stepping up its efforts to secure a trade deal with Japan after it leaves the European Union, amid the realisation that it will be left without any preferential trade arrangements at all with its fifth largest trade partner from the start of next year if it does not …
Any new United Kingdom free trade agreements which offers zero tariffs on trade will be “worthless” in the absence of adequate rules of origin which take account of sector-specific needs, the UK government has been warned. In a policy paper published this week, the UK Food and Drink Federation – …
Businesses in the services sector have written to both the UK government and the European Commission urging them not to neglect the sector in the forthcoming free trade agreement negotiations, amid growing signs that neither party is currently prioritising a sector which accounts for around three-quarters of the European economy. …
The future partnership agreement between the UK and the EU could continue to evolve over many years, with “supplementing agreements” being added progressively to the initial treaty, the European Commission has suggested. And in a move which has already raised eyebrows in the UK, it has indicated that either party …
The United Kingdom is rushing towards completion of the legislative procedures needed to ratify the Withdrawal Agreement and formalise the UK’s exit from the EU at the end of January. There is no longer any doubt that the legislation will be approved by the end-month deadline given the comfortable 80-seat …
