Most Favoured Nation: one TRILLION pounds
Data flows, Mercosur, tariffs, ever-expanding TRQs, charts and jobs. What more could you want.
Having left the EU, the UK wants to do differently on data flows. In particular, it wants to make it easier for companies to move people’s personal data between regulatory jurisdictions. [If you have views on this, the consultation closes tonight at 11:45pm UK time.]
But it is having to tread carefully. The UK currently benefits from an EU data adequacy decision (actually two), which allows firms to readily store and process the personal data of EU citizens on computer servers located in the UK. And while this decision doesn’t technically require the UK to exactly match the EU’s data privacy regime (both Japan and New Zealand benefit from EU adequacy decisions despite taking different approaches to privacy), with the European Parliament and privacy activists watching, it rests on shaky ground. So any major UK change to the existing privacy regime could create a problem.
My former colleagues at CER have written a great piece looking at three different reasons the UK’s EU data adequacy decision might die. I’m particularly interested in the EU fear of data laundering.
We should assume – because the UK has said this is what it wants to do – that the UK will at some point enter into adequacy-style arrangements with countries that don’t also benefit from an EU adequacy decisions. The moment this happens someone somewhere (probably Austria) will claim that this means that there is now a risk that the private data of EU citizens will be moved through the UK, via the adequacy arrangement, and then on to relative privacy hellholes such as … the US and Australia?
But I’m not really sure what the UK can do about this. It is well within its rights to do such deals with other countries. And technically speaking, there is no reason why it shouldn’t. The revealed preference of the European Commission (who pushed adequacy through arguing that a failure to grant the UK adequacy would mean that no country ever could have it and damage the EU’s credibility) is for EU-UK adequacy to remain. The UK wants it to remain. Yet … it’s probably going to die. Gah.
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Do you really want me?
In an attempt to finally get the EU-Mercosur deal over the line, Brazil has … brought a WTO case against the EU claiming its salmonella rules discriminate against foreign producers. The EU, for its part, has tried to calm things down by … proposing new due diligence requirements for importers of cow stuff [edible cow bits, leather and actual cows], as well as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya and wood, linked to deforestation.
What I’m taking from this is that the EU-Mercosur deal is definitely going to get ratified soon. Definitely.
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Out in the cold
On the subject of deals not getting done. I found myself wondering why the negotiation to modernise the existing EU-Chile FTA is being held up. It’s not like it’s a new deal. Surely it can’t be so hard. So I asked around, and apparently it is hard because the French are unhappy with a provision in the existing deal:
The OG EU-Chile FTA contains a poultry tariff-rate quota that expands by 10% of the original quantity, every year, forever. And ever. And ever.
There’s also another TRQ that does the same for cheese and garlic, but by 5% of the original quantity annually. For ever. And ever. And ever.
Heh.
I’m not saying it’s slightly funny. But I’m also not saying it’s not slightly funny either.
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MOAR TARIFFS
Every time EU trade enforcement tsar Denis Redonnet tweets, the non-EU exporters of the world tremble with fear. For good reason. It usually means tariffs are coming.
This week, optical fibre cable from China, Mono ethylene glycol (MEG) from the US and Saudi Arabia, and stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from India and Indonesia are in his tariff crosshairs.
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Excellent charts
The WTO’s World Trade Report 2021 is absolutely brilliant and the reason it is absolutely brilliant is that you don’t actually have to read it to get the idea. This is because it is full of fantastic charts.
Like this.
And this.
AND THIS
Anyway, read the report/look at the pictures.
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It takes three to tango
The trilateral discussions between the EU, US and Japan to address the global challenges posed by non-market policies and the practices of third countries are back, baby, and life is good again.
For those of you unfamiliar with this exercise, during the Trump-era Japan, cleverly, decided to pull together this trilateral discussion which is ostensibly to talk about China … but was actually mainly about performing marriage counselling for the US and EU.
Now that the US and EU are getting on a little better, maybe it will actually be about China. But then again, I’m still not quite sure what impact a discussion about China that doesn’t involve China can realistically have. But let’s see.
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Jobs jobs jobs
Trade jobs
More trade (contracting) jobs
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As ever, do let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Best,
Sam