News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, May 15, 2021
India’s approach to trade policy is no longer quite the outlier of recent years. But to ensure freshly announced trade talks with the country succeed, the EU and the UK need to step up their understanding of what drives India and perhaps start approaching the country differently. It’s been a …
The nation’s limited ability to influence United Kingdom trade policy is helping Scottish proponents of independence make their case. But the possibility of a future land border with England is a problem. Dedicated followers of ‘Brexit’ might currently be feeling they are destined to relive the subject endlessly. For just …
The European Union has tricky trade relations with many neighbouring countries: it would gain from having a joined-up approach to its diverse neighbourhood.
New United States proposals on minimum corporation tax and digital sales are a welcome return to multilateralism, but Washington’s priority seems to be delivering domestic results rather than international cooperation. This remains a challenge to which the European Union and the United Kingdom now have to respond.
In three months of full trade policy independence the United Kingdom has moved from initial excitement to the realisation of difficulties. Perhaps the most striking feature of Britain’s approach to trade post Brexit is its lack of innovation.
The European Union is the major economic power most consistently supportive of the global trade system. Hasty actions undermining this such as vaccine export bans would come at a high price to its standing.
Talk by European Union, United States and United Kingdom governments of changing supply chains run into fundamental difficulties not least the level of modern trade complexity, which few fully understand.
Scrutiny of trade deals is a major issue of 2021 with the EU facing big questions over agreements with China, Mercosur and the United Kingdom. Trade policy is nowadays too important to be left to trade experts. We need the politicians to give us a steer.
For many years the EU has talked about shared values as the basis for a strong transatlantic relationship. Attempts to define the values having always failed, it would be better to focus honestly on the realities of the US-EU relationship.
The UK’s former chief EU negotiator David Frost has been promoted to a ministerial role, in which he will take charge of UK-EU relations and coordinate wider trade policy. The impact of previous decisions taken – or sometimes not – makes for a tricky inheritance. 2020 was a good year …
