Leaving the EU has led to the creation of a new customs and regulatory border between the UK and the EU making it more difficult and more expensive to trade with the EU. However, the impact of Brexit on UK importers and exporters is not homogenous. This Briefing Paper identifies the factors and considerations that determine which companies are impacted, and thus why some might choose to cease to trade, while others experience no change in their trade with the EU. As more border formalities and checks are introduced, UK importers are yet to feel the full scale of the impact. As a result, issues are only going to become more widespread and deepen and new ways of responding and dealing with them are still to emerge. Read Briefing Paper 62: THE IMPACT OF A NEW CUSTOMS AND REGULATORY BORDER WITH THE EU FOR UK COMPANIES TRADING GOODS

The UK’s accession negotiation to the Asia-Pacific Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade deal was formally launched in June.  This Briefing Paper aims to examine the implications that joining the CPTPP would have for the UK’s regulatory strategy and what kind of impact it could have for future trade negotiations. To examine these issues, we look at the digital trade provisions in recent trade agreements between the UK and the EU, Japan and Australia. Read Briefing Paper 61: ACCESSING CPTPP WITHOUT A NATIONAL DIGITAL REGULATORY STRATEGY? HARD POLICY CHALLENGES FOR THE UK

The influence of trade agreements in shaping UK food safety and standards has become almost existential in defining the UK’s post-EU identity. Acceding to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is far from ideology-free: it symbolises the UK’s desire for regulatory independence from the EU and sets out a new post-Brexit direction. In this Briefing Paper, we look whether CPTPP accession seems likely to lower UK food standards and prevent the UK from agreeing to continued regulatory alignment with the EU. The answer is, not necessarily, if the UK Government communicates clearly and explicitly to CPTPP parties its intent to maintain its current regulatory approach, preferably through the use of so-called side letters. Read Briefing Paper 60: CPTPP AND AGRI-FOOD REGULATION: CROSSING THE EU-EXIT RUBICON?

International trade in a digital world is increasingly influenced by domestic regulation and is linked to non-trade areas such as health or climate change.  This makes it difficult for the WTO’s consensus- and trade-focused structure to make swift progress.  This Briefing Paper looks at how the G7 leadership across all four Trade Tracks could provide the necessary impetus for multilateral or open plurilateral solutions, in order to avert further fragmentation of the trading system. Read Briefing Paper 59: G7 LEADERS SHOULD DISCUSS INTERNATIONAL TRADE (SERIOUSLY)

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets a new precedent for bilateral trade agreements by incorporating a set of so-called “level playing field” commitments that seek to maintain the Parties’ regulatory convergence in certain policy areas but without prohibiting their respective sovereign right to choose future regulatory divergence.  Instead, continued convergence is encouraged by the inclusion of robust dispute resolution mechanisms, which provide for the possibility of either Party taking unilateral trade defence measures in certain circumstances.  This Briefing Paper, by Dr Totis Kotsonis of Pinsent Masons LLP, looks at subsidy control, which forms a key part of the level playing field commitments in detail, describing the dispute resolution mechanisms that are available and analysing the effectiveness of the unilateral trade defence measures for which the TCA provides in this context.  For reasons which are discussed in the paper, the author concludes that UK subsidies might be more prone to challenges than EU State Aid and that whilst the TCA inter-Party consultation provisions might prove crucial in limiting the risk of inter-Party disputes arising, further development of the UK domestic control subsidy system is required to make it more robust and less prone to challenges. Read Briefing Paper 58: TCA DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISMS AND [...]

After decades of close economic integration, the UK’s relationship with the EU, its biggest and closest trading partner, is now governed by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). In this Briefing Paper we look at how UK merchandise trade has performed under the new regulations in the first quarter of 2021. We employ different methodologies to quantify a TCA-effect and find that trade with the EU was hit hard in January 2021 but may have rebounded in February and March 2021, with heterogenous effects across sectors. We also investigate the extent to which UK exports have benefited from tariff-free access in EU markets. Read Briefing Paper 57: POST-BREXIT: UK TRADE IN GOODS

In advance of the EU Commission’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism proposal in July, this Briefing Paper offers a conceptual rubric for evaluating CBA design as a policy trilemma between environmental ambition, technical feasibility and fairness. The paper discusses each aspect of the trilemma and outlines potential tradeoffs that may be necessary between reducing emissions, navigating the complexities of calculating charges, and ensuring mechanisms are WTO-compliant and fair to developing countries. The Briefing Paper also argues that CBA also gives rise to the need for new forms of trade and climate cooperation to determine which other countries or producers have equivalent pricing, and therefore should be exempted. The upcoming G7 and COP, both hosted by the UK, provide an opportunity to make progress on these important questions. Read Briefing Paper 56: THE CARBON BORDER ADJUSTMENT TRILEMMA

This Briefing Paper analyses the EU’s move towards a more defensive trade policy, which enhances enforcement powers and commits to including sustainable development, environmental and labour protection goals in trade agreements. The paper examines the Current Trade Disputes where the EU has commenced formal action under a Free Trade Agreement – against Algeria, Ukraine, the Southern African Union and South Korea – and discusses the EU’s review and enhancement of International Trade Dispute Mechanisms. Professor Szyszczak concludes that, until the WTO Appellate Structure is operational, the EU is setting the pace for international trade dispute resolution. Read Briefing Paper 55: EU ENFORCEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE RULES

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the UK and the EU came into force on the 1st January 2021. This Briefing Paper considers the governance, subsidies and the level playing field provisions. The analysis reveals that much of the area lies outside the normal dispute settlement procedure and in some cases bespoke procedures replace or supplement it.  There are some innovative clauses concerning procedures to deal with imbalances arising from future labour and environmental policies, and the potential for review of the balance of the entire trade heading,  but these are quite unknown quantities and have the capacity to create perpetual wrangling and bad feeling between the UK and the EU. Read Briefing Paper 54: TAKING STOCK OF THE UK-EU TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT: GOVERNANCE, STATE SUBSIDIES AND THE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD 

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the UK and the EU came into force on the 1st January 2021. This Briefing Paper looks at the main changes to trading services. The authors find that provisions in the TCA are a major setback for services sectors (compared to the conditions for trading services within the Single Market or during the transition period), particularly for financial and transportation services. As a service-driven economy, this is a weak deal for the UK. A general ramification is that services trade with the EU may have to rely increasingly on commercial presence rather than cross-border supply. This shift, though by no means costless, will be relatively easier for large businesses that may already have affiliate enterprises within the EU-27. Furthermore, the TCA is an incomplete agreement in the sense that the precise conditions under which services can be traded with the EU still need to be worked out in a number of areas, including financial services, cross-border data flows, and mutual recognition of professional qualifications. Read Briefing Paper 53: TAKING STOCK OF THE UK-EU TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT: TRADE IN SERVICES AND DIGITAL TRADE