Trade

August 26, 2020

Taking sides? The China conundrum

Trade relations are testing business leaders everywhere but particularly those whose governments are strongly aligned with the United States, Geoff Kitney writes. Boris Johnson’s China…

June 22, 2020

Brexit trade wars: beware corporate America’s power

The idea that the UK after Brexit could expect to get some sort of inside running for a beneficial trade agreement with the US needs…

October 29, 2019

An ‘economic competitor’ on the EU’s doorstep?

Any attempt to undercut long-established European standards would be an effective declaration of economic warfare, writes Geoff Kitney. Amid the raucous and sometimes ill-tempered hubbub…

June 17, 2019

‘Free’ trade with the US could prove costly

Britain Beware! Special relationships are rarely worth much when national interest overtakes rhetoric, writes Geoff Kitney. When President Donald Trump made his recent trip to…

March 18, 2019

Complex language of trade falls on deaf ears

The empty space that sits where detailed, comprehensive and forward-looking planning for British post-Brexit trade should be set out is arguably the most perplexing example…

February 11, 2019

5G, Huawei and a technology tipping point

The US-China trade war has already seen various skirmishes, around intellectual property, steel and soya. One, however, is shaping up to be a battleground that…

October 30, 2018

Corporate America waits in the post-Brexit wings

Trade deals involve trade-offs and every trade deal the UK strikes will involve some degree of sovereignty shedding, writes Geoff Kitney. The great phoney war…

September 17, 2018

Have you got your Brexit parachute on yet?

Businesses in Leave’s north-east heartland are preparing for an EU deal that – good or bad – will have far-reaching consequences for the local economy,…

May 31, 2018

The art of the win-win negotiation

Or as John Egan discovers, in diplomatic parlance, it is the art of compromise. It seemed that the time for talking was running out at…

May 8, 2018

‘Dialogue of the deaf’ proves an expensive exercise

Post-Brexit trade policy and whether or not the United Kingdom wants to remain in the European Customs Union, has not sparked the informed debate it…

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UK set for Covid-19 vaccinations from ‘next week’ after regulatory approval
The UK has become the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine following large-scale clinical trials and is set to make the shot from BioNTech and Pfizer available from “next week”. Germany’s BioNTech and US pharma giant Pfizer said doses of the vaccine would be delivered to the UK in the coming days after the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency announced the approval on Wednesday morning. The vaccine is 95 per cent effective in preventing the disease, according to data released last month from the companies’ phase-3 trial, which involved more than 43,000 people. Financial Times, December 2

Border warning over lack of customs agents
Ministers were accused of presiding over a potential “catastrophe” yesterday as it emerged that not enough customs agents had been trained to handle a surge in demand caused by Brexit. Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said yesterday that there had been a fourfold increase in private-sector capacity to process the customs forms that companies exporting to the EU must fill in after the end of the year. Official figures suggest, however, that this could result in up to 100 million consignments being sent across the border without the right paperwork or left waiting for the correct clearance. MPs warned that there was a “risk of serious disruption and delay” at Channel crossings at the end of this month even if a deal is struck with the EU. The public accounts committee accused ministers of “taking limited responsibility” for national readiness, highlighting a recent Whitehall survey that found 36 per cent of small and medium-sized firms expected the transition period to be extended. The Times, December 2

Barnier warns next 36 hours crucial in talks
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has warned that the next 36 hours of trade talks with the UK will be crucial as he told ambassadors and members of the European parliament the two sides had not yet overcome their divisions. Brussels and London need to assess by the end of this week whether there is a possibility to reach agreement in the future-relationship discussions, Mr Barnier said in separate closed-door meetings with parliamentarians and diplomats on Wednesday, according to people present. He warned that key sticking points remained in the areas of “level playing field” conditions for business, EU fishing rights in UK waters and how any trade deal might be implemented. Mr Barnier gave an indication in the meetings of how both sides were exploring possible compromises, even if breakthroughs had not been achieved, participants said. According to one person, Mr Barnier said the two sides were exploring a transitional arrangement for fishing rights, with the idea that a renegotiation at the end of the period would be linked to the two sides’ overall economic agreement. Financial Times, December 2

UK’s hopes of early US trade deal dashed
Britain’s hopes of securing an early trade deal with the US have been dashed by a warning from Joe Biden, the president-elect, that America will not sign a trade deal with anyone until the US has sorted out its competitiveness. Britain had been closing in on a trade deal with the administration of Donald Trump, a fierce opponent of the European Union, but Biden has said in a New York Times interview that his priority will be to improve investment in US manufacturing and the protection of American workers. “I’m not going to enter any new trade agreement with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers and in education,” he said. Some supporters of Brexit had touted a US trade deal as one of the early benefits of leaving the EU and its customs union, although the economic value of such a deal had been questioned. The Guardian, December 2

Johnson hit by biggest rebel vote yet as tough tier rules passed
Boris Johnson suffered his biggest backbench rebellion since the general election last night as more than 50 Tory MPs voted against the new tiered system of coronavirus restrictions. England returns to a toughened three-tier lockdown system after MPs voted by 291 to 78 in favour of the move, with Labour abstaining. Fifty-four Tory MPs voted against and 10 abstained. The size of the rebellion was such that the government would have been easily defeated if all the opposition parties had voted against it. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has said that he is prepared to work with Tory rebels to force the government to publish a secret dossier detailing the impact of the virus on the economy. In an article for The Times today he accuses the government of attempting to “suppress the evidence” and calls for “maximum transparency”. The Times, December 2

Tesco to repay £585m in business rates relief
Tesco has announced that it is repaying the £585m worth of business rates relief that it received as support during the coronavirus pandemic. The supermarket giant said the help to retailers had been a “game-changer” and hugely important at the time. However, it added that its business had proven “resilient” and it had now decided to return the money in full. “We will work with the UK government and devolved administrations on the best means of doing that,” it said. Business rates relief was extended to all retailers as part of a package of measures announced in March. At that time, there was “a real and immediate risk to the ability of supermarkets to feed the nation”, Tesco said. BBC news, December 2

DoJ investigates alleged ‘bribery for pardon’ scheme at White House
An alleged “bribery for pardon” scheme at the White House is under investigation by the justice department, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday. The heavily redacted document does not name Donald Trump or other individuals and leaves many unanswered questions, but comes amid media reports that the US president is considering sweeping pardons before he leaves office next month. It shows that the justice department investigation alleges that an individual offered “a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence”. Two individuals acted improperly as lobbyists to secure the pardon in the “bribery-for-pardon schemes”, as the document puts it. All three names are blacked out. The Guardian, December 2

Trump seeks to strip social media of immunity
Donald Trump has threatened to veto the US defence bill unless Congress includes language in the legislation to strip social media companies of legal protections over content posted on their platforms. Mr Trump said he would not sign the annual defence spending bill unless lawmakers used the legislation to rescind part of the Communications Decency Act – known as Section 230 – that guarantees immunity for social media companies from being prosecuted for libellous content that users post. The president has argued that social media companies were biased against conservative politicians and wanted to damage his chances of re-election. Mr Trump wrote on Twitter that Section 230 was a “serious threat” to national security and election integrity: “If the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act … I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill.” Financial Times, December 2

Chinese probe digs up rocks on the moon
China has started drilling the moon’s surface and collecting rocks and soil in another success for its ambitious space programme. The Chang’e-5 mission aims to come back with 2kg of samples from a previously unvisited area of the moon in mid-December. If it is successful, China will be the third nation after the United States and the former Soviet Union to bring back substances from the moon – and the first in 44 years. The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down yesterday, according to the China National Space Administration. It is expected to work for about two days in an area in the Ocean of Storms volcanic plain, on the western edge of the near side of the moon. The rocks from the Mons Rumker area are thought to be “geologically youthful”, and billions of years younger than those collected from other parts of the moon by American and Soviet missions in the 1960s and 1970s. The Times, December 2

Secret dossier on coronavirus damage
The government has drawn up a secret dossier detailing the impact of coronavirus on the economy, with a dozen sectors rated “red” and facing significant job cuts and revenue losses, The Times has been told. The Covid-19 sectoral impacts dashboard, which is prepared by officials from across Whitehall and frequently updated, gives “granular” detail on the effect of coronavirus on nearly 40 areas of the economy. Among the sectors with a red rating are aerospace, the automotive industry, retail, hospitality and tourism, arts and heritage, maritime, including ferries and cruises, and sport. Details of the document emerged as up to 70 Tory MPs prepared to rebel today over the government’s new tiering system, which is due to come into force tomorrow. The Times, December 1