Nick Phipps, Author at UKTPO

What is the way ahead for a UK-India Free Trade Agreement?

25 May 2022 Amrita Saha is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies affiliated with the University of Sussex and Mattia Di Ubaldo is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School.[1] The third round of negotiations for the proposed UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) were concluded in New Delhi on May 6, with news that a deal could be reached by the end of the year. Yet, there are diverse interests on both sides, so any deal would be hard negotiated. We reflect on the current UK-India trade relationship, the state of play of negotiations, and what businesses on both sides hope the FTA will deliver. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-05-25T16:53:55+01:0025 May 2022|UK - Non EU|0 Comments

What we can do to fix Brexit and the Irish Border crisis

23 May 2022 Peter Holmes is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Emeritus Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School UK trade with Europe has significantly fallen off (see UKTPO BP 63 for an early assessment). UK GDP has fallen by 4%. If we cancel the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) – which is all the talk at the moment – the economic consequences of Brexit will get worse and let’s not even think about the political consequences. Is any of this fixable? Yes, if we look ahead to 2025 when the Brexit agreement with the EU—formally known as the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) —is up for its 5-yearly review. UK stakeholders, including political parties planning their manifestoes ahead of the next UK general election in 2024, should consider their Brexit positions now – but it’s not a case of leave or remain, rather a case of ‘tweak the Brexit agreement to something that better suits us’. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-05-23T11:48:39+01:0023 May 2022|UK- EU|1 Comment

Cutting tariffs on food products: why bother?

6 May 2022 L. Alan Winters is Professor of Economics at University of Sussex Business School and Founding Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. The concept is simple: cut tariffs levied on food imports so the products become cheaper in the UK, right? In this blog, we look at the trade data and discuss the reasons why changing tariffs would hardly affect prices.[1] Only a small proportion of imports pay tariffs. In 2021, the UK imported £38.6 billion of food products[2] (equivalent to 7.6% of the UK’s total imports that year and about 46% of UK food consumption). Approximately 66% come from the EU and are already exempt from tariffs under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).[3] […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-05-06T12:50:35+01:006 May 2022|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|1 Comment

What a digital divide and divergence of data governance in the Asia-Pacific mean for the UK

4 May 2022 Minako Morita-Jaeger is Policy Research Fellow at the UK Trade Policy Observatory andSenior Research Fellow in International Trade in the Department of Economics, University of Sussex The UK Government is aiming to secure the UK’s status as “a global hub” of digital trade, using Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as well as digital economy agreements. Driven by the UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt strategy, the UK has been signing FTAs that include specific chapters/agreements on digital trade (such as with Australia, New Zealand, and Japan) and a digital economy agreement with Singapore. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-05-04T07:22:44+01:004 May 2022|UK - Non EU|1 Comment

Russian MFN suspension: Implications for UK trade

11 March 2022 Michael Gasiorek is Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School President Biden announced today that the US, the EU, and the G7 countries (which includes the UK) will be suspending Russia’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In this blog we look at what this actually means for the UK and what the potential trade implications are for the UK. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-03-11T17:59:04+00:0011 March 2022|UK - Non EU|2 Comments

Finding the benefits of Brexit: food law and the UK’s emerging regulatory identity

10 March 2022 Emily Lydgate is Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sussex and Chloe Anthony is a Doctoral Researcher and Tutor at the University of Sussex Law School From chlorinated chicken to sausage wars, food law has been highly contested in defining the UK’s post-Brexit direction. Not only is it seen as vulnerable to deregulation through trade agreements, the UK has faced new trade barriers with the EU and between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These have concerned regulatory issues and have had an enormous impact on food trade. While much attention has rightly focused on Northern Ireland, departure from the EU’s regulatory union has provided a steep challenge in the rest of Great Britain, too. Food law is a devolved matter and Scotland has passed legislation setting out its intent to continue aligning with EU law, including for food law. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-03-10T15:14:58+00:0010 March 2022|UK- EU|2 Comments

The UK-Australia FTA – Can we call it a good deal?

4 March 2022 Minako Morita-Jaeger is Policy Research Fellow at the UK Trade Policy ObservatorySenior Research Fellow in International Trade in the Department of Economics, University of Sussex The UK signed a bilateral FTA with Australia on 17th December 2021. The Agreement is currently under UK parliamentary scrutiny for a three-month period until the middle of March. This is the first FTA the UK has negotiated with a trade partner ‘from scratch’. The Agreement is potentially an important benchmark for future trade negotiations, notably the ongoing application by the UK for accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-03-04T15:58:48+00:004 March 2022|UK - Non EU|2 Comments

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) one year on: trade in goods

11 February 2022 Nicolo Tamberi is Research Officer in Economics at the University of Sussex and Fellow of UKTPO. With trade data for the full year 2021 just released, we update our earlier estimates of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s impact on bilateral trade between the UK and the EU for the first year of the agreement. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-02-11T14:07:01+00:0011 February 2022|UK- EU|0 Comments

The Ukraine-Russia crisis and possible trade sanctions

27 January 2022 Michael Gasiorek is Professor of Economics and Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex and Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. The crisis between Ukraine and Russia is deeply concerning – for the people of Ukraine, but also in terms of broader ramifications for world order and stability. NATO’s strategy to avoid direct military action against Russia points at diplomacy and economic sanctions. It is therefore useful to consider the possible role of these in the realm of international trade. As we show below, Russian trade is highly dependent on the EU and NATO member states. Hence, the scope for the use of such policy is there. This is not an argument, however, for so doing – as that involves complex political trade-offs (which are beyond the scope of this blog). The importance of Russia as a supplier in particular sectors, notably energy, and hence the dependence of the EU and NATO member states on Russia is also a factor in those trade-offs. […]

By Nick Phipps|2022-01-27T09:19:16+00:0027 January 2022|Uncategorised|2 Comments

WTO reform: Plurilateral Agreements

13 January 2022 L. Alan Winters is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of UK Trade Policy Observatory and Bernard Hoekman is Professor of Global Economics, European University Institute and Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory It is widely accepted that international economic relations depend upon a smoothly functioning multilateral trading system. That trading system, institutionally underpinned by the World Trade Organization (WTO), can both stimulate economic activity and help to promote international cooperation in spheres such as climate change and migration. However, the WTO is becoming less relevant to a world in which services account for a growing share of trade, interest in environmental regulation (notably on CO2 emissions) is growing, and digital technology is reshaping our lives. These issues impinge directly on international trade and thus fall within the broad remit of international rulemaking in the WTO. However, decision making in the WTO typically requires consensus from all the Members, which is difficult to achieve when Members have different ideas about what the appropriate rules for dealing with such challenges are. Thus, not only has it become difficult for countries to agree on how to move forward, but these differences are creating new tensions in the global [...]

By Nick Phipps|2022-01-13T08:39:02+00:0013 January 2022|UK - Non EU, UK- EU|0 Comments

About Nick Phipps

Partners