News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
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 …
The Institute for Government released a new edition of its Brexit ‘readiness’ reports today. The 12-pager offers a glimpse of the the thickness of the fog in key areas of policy as Britain faces the serious prospect of leaving the EU in less than two months without an agreement that …
UK lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal with the EU today, plunging the Brexit process into chaos. The House of Commons voted 432-202 to quash the deal, after which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a vote of no confidence in bid to trigger a general election. More to …
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 …
The overarching question shaping European trade policy outcomes this year will be: what role for international trade and investment law for global business and the work of trade diplomats? This issue will be central in the four major files with which European trade policy will grapple: the future of the …
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 …
It’s mainly been a WTO-intensive week for the EU with a revised intellectual property dispute filed against China, and the US having yet another gripe about the Appellate Body. London clinched a short bye-bye deal with Norway, Iceland and Liecthenstein, while the country is realising little is actually in place in …
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 …
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 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 …
