Welcome to the UK Trade Policy Observatory

Latest Briefing Papers

Our Briefing Papers provide a unique analysis of various elements of trade policy in the post-Brexit era.

Briefing Paper 75 - Joining the CPTPP: Economic Opportunities and Political Dilemmas of Future Expansions for the UK

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Trade policy animated videos

Our animated videos help to explain the effects of trade policy. This video explains direct and indirect ways of trading services internationally, and looks at the implications for trade policy, particularly trade agreements.

For more trade explainers, visit our animations page.

November 25th, 2016

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Share this article: 22 September 2023.L. Alan Winters is Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP), Professor of Economics at University of Sussex Business School and Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory. When UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, spoke on climate policy on 20th September and talked the following day to the BBC’s Today programme, he did much more than delay the UK’s policies for achieving net zero. He said he was changing the terms of political debate. He spoke of honesty, pragmatism, transparency, and ‘getting opinions and advice from anybody’. Nothing could be more welcome to anybody who has engaged with UK policy over the last eight years, during which the greatest failing has been the lack of these characteristics at the highest political levels. I would like to celebrate the change in practice immediately, so let me pose a few straightforward questions to Mr Sunak to which… Read More

September 22nd, 2023

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Share this article: June 21 2023 Peter Holmes is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Emeritus Reader in Economics at the University of Sussex Business School. Guillermo Larbalestier is Research Assistant in International Trade at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UKTPO. This is an extract from a paper first published on The Review Of European Law journal on may 5, 2023. To read it in its entirety, click here. In the extract below we suggest that there are few trade benefits to be had. Is there something else that enhances economic viability? Is it as “regulatory sandboxes”? The present regulations require adherence to international environmental and financial standards. So what about R&D? There are some wind turbine, carbon capture and “Green Hydrogen” projects but not much linkage to Freeports.  We don’t address the recent accusations of financial irregularities, yet clearly, property speculation is the… Read More

June 21st, 2023

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Share this article: 16 June 2023 Chloe Anthony, Doctoral Researcher at University of Sussex Law School and Legal Researcher for the UK Environmental Law Association’s Governance and Devolution Group. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is part of the Government’s ‘Brexit opportunities’ agenda. It is currently in its final stages in Parliament, going back and forth between the Houses, in a debate on the inclusion of clauses that aim to safeguard parliamentary scrutiny and prevent the lowering of environmental protections. It returns to the Commons on 20 June.

June 16th, 2023

Posted In: UK- EU

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