Policy area: Trade

Reports

Decreasing rare earths dependency: how the Five Eyes alliance can minimise rare earth trading risk with China

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society explores strategies for Five Eyes Alliance countries to diversify away from China for the importing of rare earth elements. This report explores strategies for Five Eyes Alliance countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to diversify away from China for...

Read more

China ‘under siege’

This report from UK think tank Chatham House examines how the US’s hardening China policy is seen in Beijing. The China–US relationship has no doubt deteriorated in recent years. Washington’s policy of containing China through the application of restrictions on certain goods and markets, as well as China’s own economic downturn, has increased the tension...

Read more

Where might UK-EU relations be under a Labour government?

This report from UK think tank the Centre for European Reform examines where UK-EU relations might be under a Labour government. The election of a Labour government, led by Sir Keir Starmer, presents an opportunity to reset and strengthen the UK’s relations with the European Union. A new essay ‘Where might UK-EU relations be under...

Read more

Boosting Britain’s food exports

This report from UK think tank Civitas analyses our food exports prospects and what can we learn from Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway. This report analyses prospects for food exports, especially Asia and North America. It analyses long-term trends in the UK’s trade in food. It identifies the products in which we have...

Read more

Why a trophy hunting ban would hurt conservation and development

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs discusses why a trophy ban would hurt conservation and development. The rationale for import prohibitions or restrictions is normally protectionism, e.g., protecting domestic industry from foreign competitors. The rationale for the prohibition on hunting trophy imports could better be described as ‘illiberalism.’ In its...

Read more

Why cities must drive growth in the EU’s single market

This report from UK think tank the Centre for European Reform argues that the EU should promote single market integration in capital markets, banking and other services. A new policy brief from the Centre for European Reform and the Bertelsmann Stiftung argues that the EU should promote single market integration in capital markets, banking and...

Read more

UK trade 2024

This report from UK think tank UK in a changing Europe sets out the key recent trends in UK trade, outlines where uncertainties lie and what the policy implications are. UK trade has, since the 2016 referendum, become a hotly debated subject. Which is not to say that it is simply a Brexit story; the...

Read more

Imperial measurement

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs offers a cost–benefit analysis of western colonialism. In recent years, we have seen a renewed interest in Britain’s imperialist past: the British Empire, the slave trade and the Caribbean slave labour plantations. More precisely, we have seen a revival of the idea that the...

Read more

Reviving Tanzania’s regional leadership and global engagement

This report from UK think tank Chatham House argues that Tanzania’s new foreign policy strategy must emphasize proactive engagement with regional institutions and on global issues. Tanzania has recently begun to re-emerge from a period of damaging isolationism under former president John Magufuli. This isolationism obstructed international investment and undermined the country’s credible history of...

Read more

The ‘conflict economy’ of sesame in Ethopia and Sudan

This report from UK think tank Chatham House examines how the sector has become entangled in local and transnational conflict. The sesame trade is no longer just a mainstay of local livelihoods in Ethiopia and Sudan. Amid civil war and territorial rivalry on both sides of the border, it now plays a central role in...

Read more

Tackling trade-related water risks

This report from UK think tank Chatham House looks at how importing countries can address water stress from global commodity production. A combination of climate change impacts and the production of water-intensive commodities, such as food, textiles and minerals, is exacerbating global water insecurity. Around 50 per cent of the water used to produce goods...

Read more

What about seafood?

This report from UK think tank IIED argues that seafood should play a more prominent role in debates about food systems transformation in the UK. This paper argues that seafood should play a more prominent role in debates about food systems transformation in the UK. We discuss the connections between seafood and the broader food...

Read more

The state of the UK economy 2024

This report from UK think tank UK in a changing Europe takes stock of the UK economy in order to see how it can break from the current economic and political ‘doom loop’. The state of the UK economy is always an important matter, but it is all the more so in what looks likely...

Read more

World traders

This report from UK think tank the Adam Smith Institute makes the case for the UK to join the Multi-Party Interim Appeal (MPIA) arbitration mechanism. This new paper makes the case for the UK to join the Multi-Party Interim Appeal (MPIA) arbitration mechanism, the alternative to the AB set up by the world’s leading economies...

Read more

A vital partnership

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society will look at how strengthened UK-Taiwan ties can help maintain stable cross-strait relations. The success of the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit Indo-Pacific tilt and its security and economic interests throughout the entirety of the region are increasingly dependent on maintaining stable cross-Strait relations between Taiwan and...

Read more