During 2017, Lauge Poulsen, GGI Director for Global Economy and Stephen Adams, Global Counsel Senior Director, initiated and chaired the UCL’s Trade Policy Futures seminar series. Over the course of 12 seminars, participants from across Whitehall departments met with leading experts and trade policy practitioners to discuss technical aspects of future UK trade policy after Brexit.
The seminars focused on trade policy questions that are easily lost in the focus on ‘striking trade deals’. These are the day to day realities of building and operating a policy on trade and investment; running a trade defence system and customs perimeter; designing an approach to investment protection; thinking through challenges of agricultural trade, for instance in the context of the environment; choosing when and how to align UK product standards and regulatory approaches with those of its trading partners; balancing privacy considerations in the context of data flows; communicating trade policy agendas to the press; and aligning trade policy strategies within the broader regime complex of global economic governance. Above all, seeking to deepen trade relationships in imaginative ways and through innovative policy.
In 2017, the seminars were supported by the Global Governance Institute, the European Institute, and the Institute of Advanced Studies. Due to the high demand from Whitehall departments, the series is expected to continue from Spring 2018.
