Insights

In a bonus episode, Keith Zhai, Senior Adviser and former journalist reporting on the interplay of China's internal politics and its global interactions, and Stephen Adams, Senior Director, cover what companies should note in the current Xi policy environment.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has fired the starting gun on what is likely to be a new era of industrial policy around the green transition and, set alongside the CHIPS Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, marks a wide shift in US policy. It has also triggered an anxious response from the EU with the Green Deal Industrial Plan (GDIP), and although they are often…

The agreement of the Windsor Framework on the Northern Ireland protocol is an important step towards ‘normalisation’ of relations between the EU and the UK. One immediate consequence has been speculation that the EU and the UK may disinter and sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in financial services that stalled in mid-2021. While normalisation is…

The growing debate around Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) has begun to focus increasingly on the question of cross-border payments. A number of pilots around the world have begun to test the practical questions of whether CBDCs can improve global trade invoicing. These discussions and the review of pilots have generally been confined to CBDC specialists and a…

Despite plenty of wider volatility, UK trade and transit data for 2022 begin to reveal the longer-term implications of both EU exit and the covid pandemic.

Recorded last month at our Politics of Food conference in London, Senior Director Stephen Adams speaks to Emily Miles, Chief Executive of the UK's Food Standards Agency. They discuss the agency's transition through Brexit, the challenges of running a major food regulator through a pandemic, and the risks and opportunities offered by food innovation.

Over the last few months, GC has been fortunate to work as the Research Partner for R2 Factory, interviewing leading supply chain professionals on how they see their work after the covid-19 pandemic and against a backdrop of evolving demands on supply chains. Their basic answer: they have stopped thinking about supply chains, and started thinking in terms of networks of…

This year, Global Counsel's flagship policy conference is exploring the Politics of Food. Events throughout the month of January will offer a chance to debate and discuss the technological, regulatory and geopolitical challenges testing food systems around the world in 2023.

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…

Regulating the future workplace is Global Counsel’s new report on the future of employment regulation. The report examines the impact of technology on our workplaces and considers the views of businesses on the need for new regulations. Based on a survey of over 200 business leaders, this is the first report of its kind, previewing the issues that will define the modern…

After almost a decade of centre-right leadership, Anthony Albanese emerged as Australia’s new Prime Minister following this week's elections. Yet uncertainty remains; Albanese's Labor Party ran on few policy specifics beyond a repudiation of incumbent Scott Morrison's guarded approach to climate, and surging turnout for the Greens prevented them from securing an outright…

“Onshoring” chip production is a red herring: the UK should double down on its competitive advantage in R&D and IP to create a secure semiconductor supply chain, new report finds.

The last year has seen intellectual property (IP) play an increasingly central role in several policy areas, including the BEIS’s Innovation Strategy and DIT’s post-Brexit trade strategy.

On February 24th, Senior Director Stephen Adams presented to the Trade Policy Research Forum on the ways in which supply chain due diligence by UK and US private equity firms has evolved since 2016.

In December 2021 Global Counsel and clearBorder surveyed 150 UK importers and exporters on their experience of using the UK border. We set their responses against an analysis of UK border-crossing data and an assessment of key UK border policy developments in 2021. The State of the Border report is the most comprehensive business-eye view of the operation of the UK border…

In the four years that GC has run its annual ‘Politics of’ conference, no theme has generated more interest than this year’s theme of decoupling. We know only too well from working with a wide range of clients on the evolving risk landscape in relations between China and the rest of the world how uncertain and sensitive this issue can be. The sensitivity and the interest are surely linked.

Jon Garvie, Miranda Lutz, Stephen Adams and Jens Presthus take a deep-dive into the growing prominence of infrastructure spending, exploring how and why it is becoming a geopolitical fault-line between the West and China.

Stephen Adams and Elly Darkin unpack two new UK trade deals: the UK-Australia free trade agreement and the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement.