- Global supply chains have been disrupted over recent years 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 also been exacerbated by the effects of 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. 2023 offered another flash point between the US and the EU on steel tariffs; however, the two sides opted to continue talking for now, with no tariffs to be imposed until at least March 2025.
- Global trade tensions with China persist and are increasingly shaping policy approaches, including the UK’s ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’, regulations on competition and subsidies, trade remedies and the implementation of National Security & Investment legislation. The Labour government has committed to conduct a review of the UK-China relationship.
- Increasingly, trade policy incorporates sustainability concerns and accommodates countries’ aspirations to achieve net zero carbon emissions targets. The UK and EU are both committed to implementing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and green trade provisions are increasingly common to modern FTAs.
- The 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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