Insights

From 12-17 June, trade ministers gathered in Geneva for the long-awaited 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) and achieved agreement on a series of reforms after several years of deadlock. These include an intellectual property waiver for covid-19 vaccines, the WTO response to the pandemic, a moratorium on e-commerce duties, and the partial elimination of fisheries…

Global Counsel has supported the UK Food and Drink Federation (FDF) in producing a new flagship trade and investment strategy for the UK’s food and drink sector. As the UK sets out a broad new trade policy outside the EU and seeks new and updated free trade agreements, it needs a refreshed trade policy for the sector that addresses imports and exports, sustainability and…

Global Counsel has supported the European Roundtable of Industrialists in producing a flagship report on the EU’s trade policy and the challenges faced in more complex geopolitical environment. The report argues that being open to trade is a source of strength for supply chains, rather than weakness, and suggests how the EU might best put into practice its new policy of…

On a recent event for the Global Counsel network, Daniel Capparelli, Practice Lead, Trade; Tom Smith, Practice Lead, Health and Elly Darkin, Associate, discussed key challenges facing the life sciences supply chain, and how resilient has it proven so far.

This week, Trade and Manufacturing Practice Lead Daniel Capparelli is joined by Senior Associate in our US office Miranda Lutz, and Brussels office Associate Alessandro Gangarossa. They discuss the Biden administration's approach to trade as Katherine Tai, his nominee for USTR representative nears confirmation from the Senate.

Phil Hogan’s stepping-down yesterday from his role at the helm of EU trade policy is sending shock waves through political and policy communities in Europe and globally. Many will argue, in hindsight, this was inevitable in light of his lack of contrition for breaches to Irish covid lockdown guidelines and quarantine rules in the so-called GolfGate. The affair highlights,…

The UK government has published today the UK’s future MFN tariff schedule - the UK Global Tariff (UKGT). This proposed schedule will replace the EU’s Common External Tariff (CET) on 1 January 2021 and will apply to all imports into the UK on an MFN basis under ‘WTO terms’. Its main trust has been on simplification and, in parts, also liberalisation.

Senior Director Stephen Adams speaks to Trade Practice Lead Daniel Capparelli about the wave of trade policy measures we have seen in response to covid-19.

This US election cycle, GC team members in the Washington, DC and London offices are holding a series of conversations on the elections and wider US policy issues, and how each might impact investors and companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Below is a brief extract from the third conversation in the series, which begins by looking at Super Tuesday and what the results…

EU trade policy over the next five years will in many respects be defined by an evolution of outgoing Trade Commissioner Malmström’s ‘Trade for All’ strategy. At the level of content, this will be reflected on a high level of continuity on long-standing EU trade policy tenets: the defence of the multilateral trading order, the new EU FTAs trade negotiation (eg with…

The political guidelines for the 2019-2024 European Commission, and its priorities for the first 100 days, are wide-ranging and open to different interpretations. This is in contrast with its predecessor which (at the outset) could set as its over-riding priority the restoration of economic growth in Europe.

China’s recent withdrawal of its challenge to the EU’s new methodology for calculating domestic prices in trade defence cases concerning China sidesteps what was looking like a probable defeat in the WTO. In doing so it leaves a measure of ambiguity in an important part of the WTO rulebook. The EU might have preferred a clear win, but no clear judgement also serves an…

WORLD: Following an event with European Commission DG Trade representative with businesses, trade unions and EU member states representatives, Global Counsel Senior Director, Stephen Adams, Head of Europe, Tom White and Practice Lead for Trade, Daniel Capparelli, discuss EU-US trade tensions, including Trump’s trade policy and new trade agreement negotiations, challenges…

Viewed from Brussels, April 2019 marks an inflection point in the EU’s strategic approach to China. By all accounts, EU institutions and member states managed to display unprecedented unity in protracted and difficult negotiations with Beijing ahead of the EU-China summit, confounding expectations to secure a set of important Chinese commitments towards a more reciprocal…

China’s “two sessions” were revealing about the tensions between the leadership’s internal and external policy objectives. The authorities are attempting to strike a balance between controlling slower growth and increasing urban employment, while reducing rural poverty, combatting pollution and reducing financial risk. The most important development was the passing of a…

This is an excerpt from Global Counsel's latest publication Europe in the Global Economy, which can be downloaded in full here. 

A distinctive feature of President Juncker’s “political” European Commission was a single set of collective top-down priorities, rather than a stitching together of the agendas of individual commissioners. In 2014, this meant a focus on economic reforms to restore growth lost during the 2008 financial crisis: a digital single market, a…

The imposition of rules of origin on trade between the EU and the UK is often poorly understood as an important factor in managing the impact of a UK exit from the EU. While it is generally expected that the UK and the EU will ultimately trade with each other on a largely or completely tariff-free basis via a preferential trade agreement, accessing the preferential terms…