16 12, 2020

Are we ignoring the services sector at our peril in the current Brexit negotiations?

By |2020-12-16T14:43:31+00:00December 16th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Europe, Trade|Tags: , , , , , , |

While sounding more optimistic on how restarted talks were moving this week after last week’s showdown, the EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, tweeted on the 14th of December that ‘Never before has such a comprehensive agreement (trade, energy, fisheries, transport, police & judicial cooperation, etc) been negotiated so transparently [...]

20 11, 2020

The UK will never be ready for Brexit

By |2020-11-20T13:52:03+00:00November 20th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Europe, Trade|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

The National Audit Office released last week a report on preparations for the end of the transition period after Brexit. The report was critical of the government for the inadequacy of these preparations and in particular for its failure to foresee and respond to the predictable administrative consequences of Brexit. [...]

19 11, 2020

Biden changes the Brexit options

By |2020-11-20T12:04:15+00:00November 19th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Global, Trade|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Biden and the U.S. Congress are dead set against a no-deal Brexit. The Irish lobby isn’t just strong at this time; Biden as an Irish Catholic fully identifies with it. They will not give the UK a trade deal unless the agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland is fully [...]

9 11, 2020

Video podcast: The UK will never be ready for Brexit

By |2020-11-14T13:16:50+00:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Trade, Video|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Federal Trust Director Brendan Donnelly discusses the preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period and argues that the UK will never be "ready for Brexit": You can also read Brendan's blog on this topic on the LSE Brexit Blog.

9 11, 2020

Get ready for friction?

By |2020-11-14T13:14:41+00:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Europe, Trade|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Political slogans, by their nature, often tend to over-simplify or even deceive. This tendency is presumably eternal and certainly preceded the Brexit experience. However, the insistence on certain questionable mantras has been exceptionally prominent to the project of removing the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). They have [...]

2 10, 2020

EU-UK talks look like “tunnelling” toward a fudged deal

By |2020-10-09T11:46:02+00:00October 2nd, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Trade, Trade & Financial services|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Will there be a No Deal Brexit or a Free Trade Agreement, of some kind, by 15th October 2020?  This was the date by which UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted an accord should be reached or, as he put it, Britain would simply walk away. Regaining British sovereignty? Given [...]

21 09, 2020

The Level Playing Field – What’s it all about?

By |2020-09-21T11:49:46+00:00September 21st, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Trade, Video|Tags: , , , , , , |

In this Federal Trust podcast, the director of the Federal Trust, Brendan Donnelly, discusses with Dr Andrew Blick, Senior Research Fellow at the Federal Trust, the current state of the Brexit negotiations and in particular the importance of the Level Playing Field (LPF). The discussion is based on Dr Andrew [...]

2 09, 2020

Level Playing Field, Lopsided Logic?

By |2020-09-02T12:35:02+00:00September 2nd, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Trade, Trade & Financial services|Tags: , , , , |

When the United Kingdom (UK) finally left the European Union (EU) earlier this year, it did so on the basis of a Withdrawal Agreement, attached to which was a Political Declaration. This latter text included within it a shared goal of establishing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The two parties [...]

22 07, 2020

How far can the Northern Ireland Protocol limit Brexit’s economic damage?

By |2020-07-22T09:45:01+00:00July 22nd, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Devolution, Europe, Trade, Trade & Financial services, UK Devolution|Tags: , , |

Photo credit: Albert Bridge (Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 2.0)   The Brexit project entails much collateral damage. The most prominent potential victim of UK departure from the EU to date – though others will no doubt become increasingly difficult to ignore – has been the island of Ireland. [...]

22 06, 2020

Biting the bullet(s): an iconoclastic view on requesting an extension

By |2020-06-22T14:28:42+00:00June 22nd, 2020|Categories: Brexit, Europe, Trade, Views from the Federal Trust|Tags: , , , , |

This article was first published by The UK in a Changing Europe on 12th June 2020. With the formal deadline for agreeing an extension to the UK’s transition period looming, the clamour intensifies by the hour for the Johnson government to back down on its commitment not to remain bound [...]

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