- Global supply chains have been disrupted by severe fluctuations in supply and demand during the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and, to an extent, post-Brexit issues in the UK. The impact on traders has been exacerbated by rising inflation.
- For the first time in decades, the UK has been party to several trade disputes in its own right, including with the US over steel and aluminium products and as part of the Airbus-Boeing dispute.
- Meetings in October 2023 offered another flash point between the US and the EU on steel tariffs as no agreement was reached. However, the two sides opted to continue talking for now. If no agreement can be reached tariffs will be reimposed on billions of dollars of trade.
- Multilateral WTO negotiations are continuing, including on services, e-commerce and institutional reform. Global trade tensions with China persist and are increasingly shaping policy approaches, including the UK’s ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’, regulations on competition and subsidies, and the implementation of National Security & Investment legislation.
- Increasingly, trade policy incorporates sustainability concerns and accommodates countries’ aspirations to achieve net zero carbon emissions targets. Green trade provisions are common to many modern FTAs and new initiatives such as the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade & Sustainability (ATTCS) are developing momentum.
- The 'Action Plan for a 21st Century US-UK economic partnership' or ‘Atlantic Declaration’, commits the US and the UK governments to cooperation in several key areas. They include collaboration on critical technologies such as semiconductors, telecoms, synthetic biology, quantum technologies and AI.
- Timing: this is an area of continuing change impacted by many domestic and global developments.
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