The UK’s bid to establish an autonomous schedule of services in the World Trade Organization after Brexit has been dealt a blow as three WTO members objected to Britain’s draft document. Russia, Taiwan and Costa Rica all submitted written objections to the UK’s proposed schedule of commitments under the General …
UK WTO & 3rd countries
Brexit woes cast pall over future of UK-Turkish trade
Britain’s $17 billion-a-year trading relationship with Turkey will be seriously compromised – more than many other bilateral trading relationship – if the UK leaves the EU in March with no deal in place. Turkey’s customs union with the EU means its trade policy closely parallels that of the bloc. Ankara …
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 …
Week Ahead in EU trade: Trilateral, WTO disputes, UK government procurement
The first full working week of the new year will see the EU focus on World Trade Organization issues. Trilateral US Japan EU Trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström will be in Washington tomorrow to meet her US and Japanese counterparts and discuss topics of joint interest in relation to WTO rules …
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 …
UK and Switzerland agree to roll over three key EU agreements
A milestone was reached this week in Britain’s quest to secure trading continuity with most European Union trading partners after Brexit. Switzerland has been one of the UK’s priorities in its bid to ‘roll over’ EU FTAs with third countries. In case of a ‘no deal’ exit, only a few …
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 …
UK hopes for smooth ride as services schedules submitted to WTO
The UK has submitted its draft schedule of commitments on services to the World Trade Organization, as it continues its bid to have a complete set of schedules in place by the time it leaves the EU and becomes an autonomous WTO member. According to UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox, …
UK strikes deal to join WTO government procurement accord
The UK has secured an agreement in principle that it can accede to the World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement once it leaves the EU next year, overcoming a range of concerns among other WTO members in the process. Borderlex learned about the deal today following the Committee on Government …
UK to press on with TRQ split despite international opposition
The UK looks set to face down growing international opposition over its plan with the EU to reallocate agricultural tariff rate quotas between the two sides after Brexit, as it pushes towards what it sees as the essential objective of establishing its own autonomous WTO tariff schedules by the end …