Briefing Paper 80 – REGULATORY INTENSITY AND THE EU SINGLE MARKET: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UK
In this Briefing Paper, Ruby Acquah, Mattia Di Ubaldo, Michael Gasiorek introduce a set of new indices that capture the regulatory obligations for products exported to the EU’s Single Market, and provide a background discussion of product regulations and directives and their impact on international trade.
Read Briefing paper 80: REGULATORY INTENSITY AND THE EU SINGLE MARKET: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UK.
What are the potential effects of implementing common user charges? An insight into UK border dynamics.
23 April 2024
Adriana Brenis is a Research Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) at the University of Sussex Business School. She holds an MSc in Business, Finance and Economics and a PhD in Economics from the University of Sheffield. Adriana’s research focuses on international trade, economic policy analysis and innovation.
The UK government recently announced its plan to implement common user charges for imports coming into the country. This has generated some controversy and, just this week, rumours that the government may again suspend the introduction of elements of the new Border Target Operating Model (BTOM).
The common user charges, set at a flat rate of £10 or £29 per commodity line, are capped at 5 charges per consignment, resulting in a maximum fee of £145. These charges will be applied to low-risk products of animal products (POAO), medium and high-risk animal products, along with plants and plant products. Initially, they will only be collected at border controls in Dover and Eurotunnel starting April 30th. This is part of the new BTOM system, aimed at improving border procedures. The goal is to cover the expenses of running these border facilities while […]
Briefing Paper 79 – THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS, THE WTO AND ‘STRATEGIC’ PARTNERSHIPS
In this Briefing Paper, Sunayana Sasmal analyses the contribution of multilateral trade rules and recent strategic partnerships, and stresses the importance of moving away from recent fragmented approaches, in favour of enhanced multilateral cooperation.
Read Briefing Paper 79: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS, THE WTO AND ‘STRATEGIC’ PARTNERSHIPS.
Briefing Paper 78 – REFLECTIONS ON MC13: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE WTO
In this Briefing Paper, Ana Peres analyses the latest WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13) outcomes and discusses why the WTO may need to rethink its identity.
Read Briefing Paper 78: REFLECTIONS ON MC13: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE WTO.
“There Ain’t No Rules in a Knife Fight” and probably not enough in the WTO
23 February 2024
Peter Holmes is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Emeritus Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Sunayana Sasmal is a Research Fellow in International Trade Law at the Observatory.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system is in crisis. Here, and in a comprehensive working paper, we discuss one potential solution to one of the many issues confronting it. Non liquet is a legal principle that allows a tribunal to decline rendering a ruling when there is no law. We think this concept could partially address the major issue of judicial overreach. But first, some background.
Some goods (and some less good) news from UK trade
16 February 2024
Michael Gasiorek is Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Nicolo Tamberi is Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Sussex and Fellow of UKTPO.
HMRC has just published statistics for trade in goods for December 2023, giving us three years of data after the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU in 2021. This blog reviews trends in UK trade with the world and the effects of the […]
What the extended grace period for Electric Vehicle Rules of Origin tells us about the UK-EU relationship
4 January 2024
Guest author David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). He has written extensively on the development of UK Trade Policy post Brexit, in the context of developments in EU and global trade policy on which he also researches and writes.
There was relief for Europe’s automotive sector at the start of December when the UK and EU agreed to maintain current product specific rules of origin for electric vehicles within the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) until the end of 2026. A scheduled intermediate stage of tightening on the way to even more stringent final rules to take effect from January 2027 was abandoned. Industry in both the UK and EU had been warning of potential 10% tariffs without an agreement and welcomed the move.
At the most basic level, this extension demonstrated that the UK and EU can find ways to improve their trading relationship. This had previously been shown with the agreement of the Windsor Framework to supplement the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Withdrawal Agreement, reached in February 2023, as well as full UK accession to the Horizon science research programme, scheduled to […]
Do labour and environmental provisions in trade agreements lead to better social and environmental outcomes in practice?
13 December 2023
James Harrison is Professor in the School of Law at the University of Warwick. Emily Lydgate is Professor in Environmental Law at the University of Sussex and Deputy Director of the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO). Ioannis Papadakis is a researcher at the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP) and a Research Fellow in Economics. Sunayana Sasmal currently serves as a Research Fellow in International Trade Law at the UKTPO. Mattia di Ubaldo is Fellow of the UKTPO and Research Fellow in Economics of European Trade Policies. L. Alan Winters is Founding Director of the UKTPO, Co-Director of the CITP and Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex.
In answering this important question, different disciplinary approaches have emerged as have a range of different and sometimes contradictory findings. At the moment, scholars from the different disciplines are not talking to each other about the implications of this. The authors of this blog suggest it is vitally important that they begin to do so.
Trade agreements around the world increasingly include environmental and labour provisions. Their presence attests to policymakers’ recognition that trade agreements cannot simply focus on economic issues. They should also address environmental and social concerns. […]
Briefing Paper 77 – TRADE AND GROWTH
In this Briefing Paper, Nicolò Tamberi analyses literature on international trade and economic growth and provides a quick guide for policymakers on trade and growth. Trade policy is not the only tool, or the main one, to address economic growth. However, it clearly has a role to play both directly and indirectly, because inappropriate trade policy can render other growth-focused policies less effective.
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The EU Anti-Coercion Instrument: Another weapon in the Trade Policy Toolbox
20 October 2023
Erika Szyszczak is a Professor Emerita and a Fellow of the UKTPO. She was the Special Adviser to the House of Lords Internal Market Sub-Committee in respect of its inquiry into Brexit: competition and state aid, and has previously acted as a consultant to the European Commission. She specialises in EU economic law. She is currently working with the European Judicial Training Network on developing training courses for national judges in EU competition law.
On 3 October 2023 the Council and the European Parliament reached provisional political agreement on an Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI).[1] It is the latest legal trade measure contributing to the developing economic statecraft of the EU as part of the Open Strategic Autonomy. The tipping point for the EU to consider an extra method to address trade distortion occurred when China imposed trade restrictions on Lithuania after Lithuania improved trade relations with Taiwan. Lithuanian companies found that they could not renew or conclude contracts with Chinese firms, shipments were not being cleared and customs paperwork was […]
