Exports face stiff headwinds, supply chains are shifting and Britain’s position as a trading nation is being tested. One growth engine stands strong, with opportunities for those ready to seize them: digital trade. As E-Commerce Export Week begins, it highlights how even the smallest UK maker or retailer can reach Boston, Berlin or Bangkok with […]
Now that a little time has been allowed to digest what Keir Starmer’s EU ‘reset’ actually means, it has to be said it is looking far less impressive than when it was first being spun – and far more costly than the Government’s supporters care to admit. What are we meant to be getting from […]
If we are to believe all the ballyhoo surrounding Keir Starmer’s recent ‘trade deals’ with the US, India and the EU, anyone could be forgiven for believing the Prime Minister has solved our economic future by taking a couple of long-haul flights and welcoming Ursula von der Leyen to a jolly in London. Sadly, the […]
If someone had given me a crystal ball six months ago and said that Donald Trump was going to unleash ‘Liberation Day’ on the world, I would have predicted catastrophe. A return to the protectionism of the 1930s would be disastrous for the global economy. But in a rather unexpected twist, that has not materialised: […]
The decision by US Court of International Trade to block Donald Trump’s tariffs, declared by the President under International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), comes as a relief after the weeks of uncertainty and policy reversals that followed the ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2. It also shows that, while businesses had good reasons to be rattled […]
The ‘EU reset’ proposal has undermined British control over its trade and regulatory autonomy. While the Prime Minister calls this agreement pragmatic – hoping it will boost the UK economy by £9 billion per year by 2040 – its terms tie the UK to EU rules across critical policy areas, from food safety to fisheries, […]
It has been an important week for the UK. It can now count a hat trick of firsts since leaving the EU in the execution of its independent trade policy. First accession country to the CPTPP. First major country to have a trade deal with India (negotiated in three years), and now first country to […]
Under Donald Trump’s mass tariffs scheme, the UK is one of a number of countries on the minimum rate of 10% (along with Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina, UAE, Egypt and others). Much of the world economy is on much higher tariff rates. The EU rate is 20%. Vietnam’s is 46%. China’s is 54%. The fact […]
The siren calls for retaliation against the US if Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on the UK remind me of this exchange from ‘Braveheart’… Longshanks: Archers! English Commander: I beg pardon, sire. Won’t we hit our own troops? Longshanks: Yes… but we’ll hit theirs as well. The serious point here is that tariffs hurt people […]
It was the early 2000s. The Y2K panic had been replaced by hope for the new century. The TV show ‘Friends’ was in its prime. The skinny jeans era was on the horizon. A pesky retailer scoured the world, trying to bring the cheapest branded trousers to its customers, wielding a Nokia 3310 and fuelled […]
President Donald Trump addressed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin via social media last week, calling on him to settle now and stop the war in Ukraine or face increased sanctions. However, as the experience of his predecessor shows, this may be easier said than done. Can Trump deliver more effective sanctions than Joe Biden, and […]
Can Britain strike a deal with President Trump and avoid the looming tariff trap? Why are leaders in the UK and the US falling short of the so-called “Reagan test”? And, could the UK be on the cusp of creating its own billion-pound tech titan? Join Douglas Carswell from the Mississippi Centre for Public Policy, […]
One of Keir Starmer’s persistent priorities is ‘resetting’ the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union. A year ago, before the general election, I wrote that the narrative underlying Labour’s approach to the EU was that ‘Britain did a terrible thing, we disgraced ourselves in front of our endlessly patient European neighbours, and it is […]
It has taken a quarter of a century, but the EU and the Mercosur bloc of countries comprising Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay (Venezuela is currently suspended) have, in theory, agreed terms on a trade deal. I say ‘in theory’ as the French and Polish governments are still opposed to the deal, and might […]
During his first term as US president, Donald Trump adopted a forthright approach to the issue of Nato funding. It had been an issue that concerned previous presidents too, but Trump forced it into the open and demanded that member states pay their fair share on defence. An inconvenient truth is that his approach worked, […]
In 2020, when she was then Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss went to Washington D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump as part of the UK government’s negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between our two countries and to also tackle a few trade disputes. We sent Truss off with a […]
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