Media Coverage

Momentum is gathering behind mutual recognition and a free trade agreement (FTA) as the basis for the City after Brexit, with a second report arguing it is the best possible route.

The blueprint, written by UK Finance with support from law firms Clifford Chance and Global Counsel, argues for a "bold and ambitious" FTA for financial services after leaving the European Union, which will be based on mutual recognition. Our "unparalleled" position of convergence offers the UK and EU an opportunity to create "a robust and flexible market access model", it claims.

Britain’s banking industry has called for a post-Brexit trade deal to allow financial services professionals to continue travelling freely across Europe on assignments of up to three years.

The proposal, coming shortly after David Davis, the Brexit secretary, promised to seek a similar travel regime for bankers, is one of several recommendations in a report to be published on Thursday by UK Finance, the industry body, law firm Clifford Chance and consultants Global Counsel.

The European Union’s landmark agreement with Cuba entered into force this week, marking a new chapter that aims for increased trade and diplomacy between the EU and the Latin American region.

“The EU-Mercosur deal would send the same signal as the EU-Japan political agreement announced over the summer — that while the US administration draws inwards and retreats from trade liberalisation, the rest of the world forges ahead,” senior trade associate at advisory Global Counsel, Guillaume Ferlet, tells GTR. 

Roberto Robles, a Senior Associate at the London-based public policy consultancy Global Counsel, gives us his analysis on what could happen in the next few days and weeks in Catalonia.

Since 10am on Thursday, Spain has entered unchartered waters. Madrid's deadline for Catalonia's leader to renounce independence has come and gone. The escalation around the staging of that banned October 1st independence referendum is entering a new phase. Global Counsel's Senior Associate Roberto Robles has taken part in a live TV debate on the topic.

Claims that the UK could join the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) have been dismissed as “far-fetched” by trade policy experts. However, there are a number of issues to consider, according to Daniel Capparelli, trade policy practice lead at Global Counsel advisory.

He tells GTR: “Nafta membership is very unlikely to create substantial market opening in areas where the UK’s competitive and comparative advantage is greatest – such as services and financial services – given its relatively low level of coverage in these areas.”

Memories of the Brexit referendum remain both fresh and painful for me personally. Throughout the campaign the most vocal advocates backing Leave, many now representing the UK government as it negotiates our divorce from the EU, suggested that there was a bright new future for Britain as a global trading nation. Next month I get to test this thesis in person when I will visit Australia for the first time. As EU trade commissioner I worked very closely with Australia's trade negotiators. Now I can understand whether our shared history is the basis for a common and prosperous future as Brexit becomes a reality.

A textbook case, a long-inevitable state bailout and a brazen political fudge: Europe’s BRRD has had something of a rough ride this summer. As the region’s banks brace themselves for the capital-raising marathon that is MREL, are the new resolution regulations actually doing more harm than good?

“What we witness today in Spain and Italy suggests a system that is half built, with all the problems of a half-built system,” says Carmen Bell, practice lead at advisory firm Global Counsel in Brussels. 

Coonservative HQ are agonising over how to create powerful digital content to lure young people into voting blue and the chancellor’s supposedly considering a “youth budget”. At the same time, a number of attempts to create a Conservative Momentum have been launched over the last few weeks. The efforts are noble but videos and posts with centre-right messages, a few token youth schemes at the next budget and enthusiastic but naïve young Conservatives are never going to generate the same traction as left-wing equivalents.

Dispute-resolution boards have become a lightning rod for opponents of globalization from across the political spectrum.

“This issue has been drawn into a much wider debate about globalization,” said Stephen Adams, a former European Union trade official now with U.K.-based advisory firm Global Counsel. “It reflects a level of public and political concern about large firms and their lawyers seeking to dictate what the EU and other governments can regulate and how.”