The UK needs to put a much higher priority on the interests of its services sector in future trade negotiations with both the EU and non-EU countries – or risk serious damage to a sector which makes up the bulk of the British economy.
UK-EU negotiations
Brexit: UK trade department prepared for crucial shift over Customs Union
The UK’s Department of International Trade is preparing the ground to assume a different role to the one for which it was created, if Britain’s eventual Brexit solution involves remaining in a customs union with the EU. In evidence to the House of Commons’ International Trade Committee on Wednesday, George …
Week ahead in EU trade: EU-US, China, Chile, Tunisia, E-commerce
April could see a slowdown in decision-making in trade policy in Brussels. But this does not mean there will be less anxiety over two major files: EU-US trade relations and Brexit. In April we will also see new developments on EU-Chile and EU-Tunisia trade negotiations and on e-commerce. Continued EU-US, …
UK Lords vote for customs union with EU, parliamentary approval of FTA mandates
Britain’s upper house has approved motions calling for the United Kingdom to remain within a customs union with the European Union, and for enhanced parliamentary scrutiny of future UK free trade agreement negotiations.
Calls for more contingency measures in Brussels in face of ‘No Deal’ Brexit threat
The business community in Brussels is starting to get seriously jittery about the prospects of Britain leaving the European Union in a chaotic way at the end of next month. The agriculture and food sector sent a list of specific contingency measures it wants the EU to roll out. Other …
Brexit Notes: Transatlantic trigonometry post-Brexit
Despite their prime importance for Europe, Britain and the United States, there’s been little deep thinking about the future of transatlantic relations post-Brexit, both at the geostrategic level and at the more mundane economic level. But that is bound to change. In Britain, the focus after the 2016 referendum has mainly …
UK and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway agree EEA-related separation terms
Britain and Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein agreed on the terms of their ‘separation’. Members of the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Area largely replicate EU single market rules. As an EU member, Britain is also an EEA member – hence the need to strike an agreement with …
Brexit Notes – Trade policy: what is ready in case of no-deal Brexit?
Both Brussels and London have started to prepare contingency plans as the possibility that Britain ‘crashes out’ of the EU next March is becoming a genuine possibility. The aim is to avoid the most severe of disruptions. In Britain hardly anything is yet ready to salvage existing trade arrangements and …
A week in Brussels: EU industry says no to steel safeguards, India data adequacy, Brexit TRQs
This week’s top stories: Britain and services in the WTO, a big bazooka in the WTO’s dispute settlement body, a Japan deal at risk of falling victim to German and other social-democratic political decline, member states wrangling over rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia. But also these stories here: Top …
EU-UK political declaration on future relationship leaves ‘red lines’ intact
The contours of the future European Union – United Kingdom relationship are sharpening up. That is what the latest version of the political declaration that will accompany Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the EU reveals. There is little that is surprising in the content of the text, which a few days …
