Brexit

The British exit of the European Union is the most significant economic demerger between major economies since the Second World War and much about the forthcoming process of transitioning out of the EU has no precedent. But we know already that both the UK and the EU will be significantly changed by what is about to unfold.

Global Counsel has been helping clients prepare for a possible Brexit over the past three years. Our team of former Whitehall and Brussels policymakers and sectoral specialists, based at our offices in Brussels and London, enable us to help clients navigate the politics, policy and commercial implications of Brexit.

Contact us to find out how we can help your organisation.

General Politics

Brexit begins now

General Politics

Gregor Irwin
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Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech has provided much needed clarity about the British approach to Brexit. It has reset the baseline for the negotiation by taking the UK out of the single market. This is a hard concession for Europhiles in Britain to swallow, but one that was inevitable. By conceding the point early, the UK will avoid being put on the defensive…

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General Policy icon

Brexit and the future of UK immigration policy

General Policy

Tom Smith
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May has all but ruled out maintaining freedom of movement between the UK and EU post-Brexit. This implies a new migration system, providing recruitment challenges for a range of sectors from social care to agriculture. Businesses should now plan to adapt, but policy flux is not all bad news, with some distinct opportunities arising, especially…

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Financial services icon

Passporting is dead. Long live ‘passporting’?

Financial Services

Stephen Adams
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There was some comment this week about the fact that the UK’s largest financial services advocacy body TheCityUK has self-consciously ceased to advocate the retention of passporting rights for UK-based financial services businesses after the UK has left the EU. This was presented as a concession of ambition, but it is also a form of tactical retreat.

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General Politics

Could the UK’s new industrial strategy solve the conundrum of skills and migration?

General Politics

Tom Smith
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UK immigration minister Robert Goodwill’s comments were very rapidly dismissed by his prime minister this week when he floated the idea of extending the proposed £1,000 a year charge on skilled migrant workers to workers from the European Union after the UK has left the EU. Aside from the now familiar sight of ministers being put back in their boxes after speculating on…

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General Politics

Short-changing Britain with shoddy analysis

General Politics

Gregor Irwin
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Campaign group Change Britain has published flawed and incomplete analysis suggesting the UK will gain £24bn a year, or £450mn each week, if the UK government pursues a ‘clean Brexit’ and leaves the single market and customs union. 

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Trade and Manufacturing icon

EU FTAs: mixed fortunes

Trade & Manufacturing

Guillaume Ferlet
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The EU Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston yesterday delivered an important preliminary conclusion in the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) review of the ratification requirements of the EU-Singapore FTA. This sounds like an arcane question but is actually a big political issue. Because the question Sharpston has answered is the question of whether or not EU trade…

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Could UK exporters miss the ECJ?

Trade & Manufacturing

Guillaume Ferlet
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GC has just published a report with colleagues from Herbert Smith Freehills and The Boston Consulting Group looking at some of the implications of a ‘hard Brexit’ for traders between the EU and the UK. Media coverage of the report has focused on the headline issue of tariffs being re-imposed on EU-UK trade. But, among many other things, the report flags the important…

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Trade Post-Brexit

Trade & Manufacturing

Stephen Adams
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In collaboration with Herbert Smith Freehills and The Boston Consulting Group, Global Counsel has co-authored a paper looking at the meaning and implications of a hard Brexit for businesses, aiming to help them understand the role they may play in shaping this or an alternative outcome.

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General Policy icon

The power of procedure: how might the UK parliament shape Brexit?

General Policy

Leo Ringer
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A contest for control of the Brexit process is playing out between the government and parliament in the UK. The complex, opaque rules of parliamentary procedure have suddenly become central to the ability of either side to dictate the tempo and content of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Understanding these rules is key to understanding whether and how parliament can…

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'Singapore of the North Atlantic': a viable option for post-Brexit Britain?

Financial Services

Ying Staton
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In the months since Brexit there have been murmurings about whether, post-Brexit, Britain could adopt a ‘Singapore model’. A number of Brexiteers in the financial sector have suggested that Britain could become a “super-duper Singapore” through deregulation and focusing on new markets in Asia.

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General Politics

Offshore Britain?

General Politics

Leo Ringer
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According to one major newspaper, the UK Government is developing a “nuclear” Brexit negotiating threat in the form of a corporation tax cut to 10%. The logic goes that the prospect of an aggressively low-tax “offshore” UK on the doorstep would scare the EU into accommodating British preferences for the future UK-EU relationship. But as with all nuclear deterrents, the…

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The 100,000 person question

General Policy

Leo Ringer
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Immigration is the simmering political issue at the heart of Brexit. Much of the debate has focused on how far the UK can reclaim control of EU migration into the UK, while retaining some form of participation in, or preferential access to, the single market. But what if we assume that full migration policy is back in the hands of the UK government. How does it meet…

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In the Brexit divorce, who gets custody of the EU’s FTAs?

Trade & Manufacturing

Stephen Adams
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Like many divorces, Brexit is going to be a custody battle of sorts. UK Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox has warned (via his preferred UK newspapers) his EU counterparts that attempts to prevent the UK inheriting a large number of FTAs signed on the UK’s behalf by the EU could be met with retaliation by those EU trading partners. This is, in essence,…

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General Politics

EU tuition fees post-Brexit: feast or famine?

General Politics

Leo Ringer
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In a week when a UK university, Oxford, was crowned the best in the world, it’s worth reminding ourselves that Brexit gives the British higher education sector a lot to chew on. The potential loss of research funding and restricted access to top EU talent are headline concerns, but here’s a different question: what happens once EU students become classified as …

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Brexit and the audio-visual sector – facing up to life outside the single market

TMT

Conan D'Arcy
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As Whitehall limbers up for the UK’s exit negotiations from the European Union by establishing new departments and recruiting new staff, it will be some time before the government reaches its full capacity for managing the negotiations. Before this point, however, fundamental decisions will need to be taken about the direction of the negotiations, such as whether to…

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EU-UK (Un) Free Trade Agreement

Trade & Manufacturing

Stephen Adams
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One of the consistent themes of the UK referendum campaign on EU membership was just how hard it would be to re-establish trading terms between the two sides if the UK was outside the EU. Opponents of exit warned that it could take many years for the EU and the UK to negotiate a ‘Free Trade Agreement’ (FTA). To be sure, the EU’s own experience with such negotiations has…

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Should the UK seek Customs Union with the EU?

Trade & Manufacturing

Stephen Adams
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It was interesting to watch the new UK Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis face-off for the first time with the British Parliament this week. As expected, he was pushed on the detail of his vision for the future relationship between the EU and the UK and he ultimately got in trouble with his boss in Number 10 for sounding a bit too sure on the question of…

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General Politics

Europe and Brexit

General Politics

Stephen Adams
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As part of Global Counsel's collaboration with DLD in the inaugural DLDeurope event in Brussels, we have put together a note looking at some of the implications of Brexit on the wider EU.

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