Negotiating a Turbulent World

From Brexit, Covid-19, climate change, to geopolitical tensions and conflicts, the international trade system is facing an enormous number of challenges and shocks.

The UK must navigate these challenges globally but also domestically: trade arrangements between UK nations have been transformed post-Brexit, giving rise to political and constitutional stress.

This challenging environment for trade and trade policy creates a pressing need for policy-responsive research. The projects under this theme will integrate different disciplines – law, economics, political science, and business studies – to ask:

• What are the impacts of new obstacles to trade cooperation?
• What are the effects of uncertainty?
• How can the UK use trade policy to address global challenges?
• How can the UK navigate – and lessen – trade frictions?

We will apply these broader questions within four more specific areas: climate change, deep regulatory cooperation through Free Trade Agreements, navigating uncertainty and trade frictions post-Brexit, and trade governance between the nations of the UK.