UK Trade Policy Forum

Date: Tuesday 28th February 2023

Location: Chatham House, 10 St James Square, London, SW1Y 4LE

The UK Trade Policy Forum is an annual one-day event that will bring together all of the UK’s trade policy community - policy actors, civil society, academics, the media and the private sector – to discuss all things trade and trade policy.  The first UK Trade Policy Forum is held in conjunction with Chatham House and Resolution Foundation.

The Forum is unique place to explore the determinants, trade-offs and direction of various policy positions, different stakeholders’ policy concerns and to learn about the latest academic thinking on key issues.

With keynote speeches, a roundtable and panel discussions, with panels comprised of a broad range of speakers across different disciplines and sectors of society, it is our aim that the Forum will facilitate the sharing and deepening of knowledge, collaboration and the exploration of new possibilities for UK trade policy. All sessions will provide ample time for question-and-answers to enable open discussion and sharing of views.

The Forum will be held under Chatham House rules and will not be recorded so as to encourage open discussion.

With much of the UK’s trade policy community being dispersed and fragmented across different disciplines and sectors, there will also be plenty of time and space for networking!

Registration is now closed for this event

Programme

Registration

08:45-09:15

Please be seated by 09:15

Registration

08:45-09:15

Please be seated by 09:15

Welcome

09:15-09:30

L. Alan Winters Director CITP

Keynote and Q&A

09:30-10:15

Bronwen Maddox (Director, Chatham House)

Gareth Davies (Permanent Secretary Department for Business & Trade)

Coffee Break

10:15-10:40

Coffee Break

10:15-10:40

Supply Chain Resilience

10:40-11:50

Chair: Sam Lowe (Flint Global)

Speakers: Marianne Schneider-Petsinger (Chatham House), Jonathan Brenton (Pernod Ricard), Phillippa Makepeace (Department for Business & Trade)

Recent policy developments and shocks to the world economy (Covid-19, US-China ‘trade war’, Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, policies to encourage domestic computer chips production) have had dramatic impacts on firms’ supply chains, raising concerns about their resilience and about economic security more generally. The aim of this session is to explore these issues and in particular consider the appropriate private and public sector responses, especially with regard to critical inputs. The discussion will focus on whether there is a need for governments (and by extension the UK government) to respond, and if so how, or whether companies themselves are best placed to navigate these challenges.

Climate Change and Trade

10:40-11:50

Chair: Jodie Keane (Overseas Development Institute)

Speakers: Alan Winters (CITP), Amar Breckenridge (Frontier Europe), Ben Westerman (Aldersgate Group)

Climate change is probably the biggest self-inflicted challenge the world has created and the need for urgent action is manifest. The climate is a global public good and thus requires coordinated policy responses. But responding to climate change also requires confronting various asymmetries: in capabilities, impacts, and policy priorities between countries. This session will focus on the role of international trade in contributing to the problem; trade policies that might help to alleviate climate change; the challenges to international policy coordination that unilateral policies may engender; and more specifically the desirable and feasible UK policy options.

 

Trade Policy making within the UK

11:50-13:00

Chair: Ben Cropper (Department for Business & Trade)

Speakers: Victor Dukelow (NI Department for the Economy), David Henig (European Centre for International Political Economy) and Mairi Spowage (CITP)

After more than 45 years of trade policy being an EU competence, for the past two years the UK has had control over its trade policy. This session is designed to consider both how trade policy is formulated in the UK and the effectiveness and inclusiveness of trade policymaking. There are several issues to be addressed in this panel. First, the degree and effectiveness of parliamentary scrutiny and the role and input of the devolved administrations. Second, the extent and ways in which individuals and businesses are consulted on the objectives underpinning UK trade policy and UK trade strategy. Third, the ways in which trade policymaking could be improved.

Food and agriculture, standards and trade

11:50-13:00

Chair: Ruth Bergan (Trade Justice Movement)

Speakers: Tracy Epps (Independent Consultant), Josie Cohen (Pesticides Action Network) and Nick Von Westenholz (National Farmers Union)

Public opinion polls indicate a concern with how international trade, and by extension free trade agreements may impact on agriculture and food, food standards and domestic producers. Such issues have been part of the challenge with regard to the Northern Ireland Protocol and have also been raised with regard to the UK’s FTAs signed with both Australia and New Zealand. This session aims to debate how governments can maintain desired standards while also facilitating trade in food and agriculture between countries.

LUNCH

13:00-14:00

LUNCH

13:00-14:00

Workers and trade

14:00-15:10

Chair: Peter Foster (Financial Times)

Speakers: Rosa Crawford (Trades Union Congress), Adrian Smith (University of Sussex) and Giovanni Facchini (CITP)

International trade, and hence changes in trade policy, inevitably impact on firms and industries in different ways, and thus lead to there being ‘winners and losers’. It is not surprising then that a key concern in many countries is the impact of trade on domestic workers, as can be seen for example, by the USA’s worker-centric trade policy. Relatedly, there also appear to be increasing concerns about labour rights and practices in some countries. This raises both ethical issues, and also issues of perceived unfair competitiveness, as can be seen in the EU’s Trade Policy Review. These raise challenges for domestic policymaking, for workers' perceptions of the benefits of international trade, and for relationships with third countries, all of which will be addressed in this panel.

 

The challenges of digital trade

14:00-15:10

Chair: Sally Jones (EY)

Speakers: Euan Macmillan (Competition and Markets Authority), Ingo Borchert (CITP) and William Bowes (Conde Nast)

Digitisation is an increasingly important element of international trade in several ways: digitisation facilitates and enables trade, including businesses using digital technology to manage their supply chains; it increasingly allows for the digital delivery of goods and services whilst blurring the line between the two; and the emergence of gatekeepers and platforms radically change the structure of markets that underpin digital trade. While much of these developments may be desirable in terms of increasing competitiveness and productivity, at the same time they raise issues associated with cross-border data transfer and privacy, and consumer rights and trust, or cyber-security. The focus of this session will be on understanding the importance of the digital economy for trade, and on ways of addressing the policy challenges raised by digitisation.

Comfort Break

15:10-15:30

Comfort Break

15:10-15:30

UK trade policy priorities roundtable

15:30-16:30

Chair: Faisal Islam (BBC)

Speakers: Angus MacNeil MP (House of Commons), Creon Butler (Chatham House) Sophie Hale (Resolution Foundation) and Michael Gasiorek (CITP)

The international trade policy environment is becoming increasingly complex and interventionist. One reading of these developments is that in good part they represent a growing battle for competitiveness in key / strategic sectors between the economic superpowers. This raises wide-ranging policy challenges at the bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral level and challenges across specific issues be this climate change, the environment, supply chains or digital trade. All this in a world where geopolitical exigencies also seem to play a more significant role. With an independent trade policy, the UK’s responses to these challenges will shape outcomes in the UK for years to income and will impact differently on groups, sectors and regions in the UK. The aim of this session is to discuss what are, and what should be, the UK’s policy priorities and to explore how the UK should attempt to navigate its way through these challenges.

Conference Close

16:30-16:45

Michael Gasiorek (CITP)

Reception

16:45-17:30

Reception

16:45-17:30