This is an exceptional second edition of our Week in London column – focused on domestic trade issues and UK talks with everyone else except the EU….
EU UK Agriculture
EU imports under TRQs to be denied access to Northern Ireland
Imports of agricultural products into the EU under Union tariff rate quotas may only be marketed in the EU’s customs territory as from next year – and not in Northern Ireland. This is a big problem for the Irish dairy industry in particular. This has been confirmed in a new …
UK & EU food manufacturers call for liberal rules of origin in future trade pact
Food industry manufacturers in the European Union and the United Kingdom have joined forces to lobby their respective negotiators for a “bespoke solution” to liberalise rules of origin in the EU-UK free trade agreement talks. The industry groups are urging the two sides to agree to a series of RoO …
WTO members suspicious as UK converts tariff schedules from euros to pounds
The UK’s new Global Tariff schedule has attracted a suspicious response from Britain’s World Trade Organization partners – especially following confirmation that the government planning to change part of the country’s ‘bound’ tariff schedules from euros to pounds once it leaves the EU’s customs union on 31 December this year. …
Chasm widens over ‘level playing field’ as EU-UK FTA talks hit the buffers
If the old trade negotiators’ adage is true – that you need to get to a crisis point before anything really starts happening in earnest – then the negotiations between the EU and UK for a post-Brexit trade agreement might just have reached a point where progress can now start …
Brexit and fish: the threat to UK-EU trade in fisheries products
Few sectors have more at stake in the fraught trade negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union than fisheries. While the media has mostly been focusing on the highly-politicised issue of access to British fishing grounds for EU vessels after the current transition period expires, Brexit also threatens …
EU, UK join WTO group pledging fight against food export curbs
The European Union has joined with 23 other World Trade Organization members in pledging not to impose food export bans in response to the crisis in food distribution which the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed in some sectors. The commitment was issued in the form of a WTO joint statement, coordinated …
UK in quest for new balance in approach to trade-and-food safety
The UK should show leadership in the WTO in “testing” trade rules which work against domestic policy objectives in areas like food standards, animal welfare and environmental protection, British members of parliament were told this week. At a hearing of the House of Commons’ committee on the environment, food and …
UK food industry calls for tailored rules of origin ahead of trade talks with EU
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 – …
