Trade, Europe and Markets

Canada and the EU tie the knot

The European Union is opening the doors to freer trade at precisely the moment that free trade is under the most serious threat since the Great Depression, writes Geoff Kitney Amid an…

World trade order a new work in progress

United States President Donald Trump will find that negotiating new trade deals is a much more difficult process than dumping existing deals, Geoff Kitney  writes. It has been said that if you ask 20…


UPDATE: Trading in the Trump era

Major multilateral free trade agreements – existing, proposed and in doubt in the era of the Trump Presidency – compiled by Geoff Kitney. Doha Development Round of World Trade Negotiations 164 countries…


Special relationships and trade rarely mix

Sources in trade diplomacy have been asked by consultants hired by the British Government to search internationally for experienced trade negotiators, Chief-Exec.com  has been told. As the hard realities of the consequences…


Four charts, two scenarios and a dilemma

UK Prime Minister Theresa May could find herself on the horns of a dilemma She has a problem. To quell the unrest that led to the Brexit vote she needs to address…



Wherein lies the future for economic migration?

In the forthcoming trade-off between migration controls and access to European Union (EU) markets, the UK economy could be hit from both sides, leading to a possible lose-lose outcome. This is the…


Migration fault lines revealed

Few issues stir up such strident opinion as migration. From the wish to control borders and protect jobs and communities, to the need to open the door wide and welcome workers with…


Global political shocks shift global trade

By Geoff Kitney As China seeks to exploit an unprecedented series of political shocks to the major western nations, trade policy has emerged as the key battleground on which the balance of…


The water is wide for Scottish fishing

Amid the Brexit doom and gloom one industry finds joy. But are the United Kingdom’s fishermen right to celebrate escaping the European Union’s common fisheries policy? Some of Britain’s fishing fleet skippers…