Insights

On Monday, the International Panel on Climate Change released its most important report in recent years: the prosaically titled Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. The good news is that the report’s authors conclude that limiting warming to 1.5°C is still technically possible. Otherwise, the news is mostly bad. The report outlines…

At the governing UK Conservative party’s conference this week, parliamentary undersecretary of state, Therese Coffey, promised a ‘radical’ Waste and Resources Strategy by the end of 2018. A series of government enquiries this year have underscored widespread support for more hard-nosed policies. The EU’s circular economy package recycling targets and China’s hardening…

The Trump administration’s revamped NAFTA (or USMCA, as we are being invited to call it) landed this week after a year or so of fraught negotiations with Mexico and Canada. If we discount the amendments to KORUS (The United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement) prompted by the US’s steel and aluminium tariffs earlier this year, it is the Trump administration’s first major…

The long-anticipated constitutional referendum in Macedonia on Sunday has been watched carefully both in Brussels and in Moscow. The seemingly convoluted question in ballot papers – "Do you support EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between Macedonia and Greece?" – in fact provided an unequivocal direction for 1.8 million voters in the Balkan nation. The…

The UK House of Lords EU External Affairs Sub-Committee has published the report of its inquiry into post-Brexit customs arrangements: Brexit: the customs challenge. The report reviews a wide range of important customs and trade facilitation issues linked to the UK’s exit from the EU.

What connects Jean-Claude Juncker with Netflix? House of Cards? Perhaps, but no. Orange is the new black, certainly not. Mathias Döpfner. Maybe. Back in 2014, at the peak of the horse-trading during the Spitzenkandidaten process, legend has it that this article in Bild (owned by Axel Springer, whose CEO is Herr Döpfner) played a decisive role in encouraging Angela Merkel…

On her visit to sub-Saharan Africa a few weeks ago, UK prime minister, Theresa May, set out an ambition for the UK to become Africa’s biggest G7 investor by 2022. The announcement came alongside some £4 bn in foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments announced during the visit. This was the first visit by a British prime minister to Sub-Saharan Africa in five years, and…

Senior Associate Thomas Gratowski discusses the possible outcomes of the US midterm elections.

Global Counsel Senior Director, Stephen Adams, and Senior Associate, Joe Armitage, discuss the UK government's Brexit strategy and the likelihood of a second referendum.

WORLD: Global Counsel Chairman Peter Mandelson discusses how businesses and governments can navigate risks amid the current global trade crisis.

In a new joint report, Carlos Gutierrez, Co-Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, and Peter Mandelson, Chair of Global Counsel, warn business leaders that in the current crisis in the international trading system, companies and investors will need to develop new tools to safely navigate and mitigate risks. They urge business leaders to become more effective in advocating…

WORLD: Global Counsel Chief Economist, Gregor Irwin, and Senior Associate, Thomas Gratowski, discuss implications of the global trade war.

Something rather important flew under the radar last week, as the US secured a deal with Mexico on NAFTA. With most of the coverage focused on the revamped rules of origin for auto trade, little light was shed on the Trump administration’s other achievements in the auto sector. The deal struck with Mexico reportedly includes a clause allowing the US to charge more than…

In Sweden’s general election this weekend, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) are projected to win approximately 20% of votes. This will make them the second largest party in the country – the result of a swift rise that will dramatically impact Sweden’s political landscape. It echoes a similar surge from anti-establishment and Eurosceptic parties seen in the…

There is nothing new in British government ministers showing a basic lack of understanding of trade policy. The Brexit referendum and its aftermath have been characterised by ministers asserting ambitious free trade goals which are not deliverable in the real world. Now the opposition Labour party has followed suit with its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, setting out a new “Build…

This is the third quarterly issue of the Global Counsel Brexit dashboard. More than two years on from the vote – and with just six months before the UK leaves the EU – we are taking the macro pulse of the UK economy, using a balanced set of 15 indicators. We are not attempting to isolate the impact of Brexit from all the other factors affecting the economy, as that is…

US trade policy under Donald Trump has become volatile, noisy and aggressive. This makes it hard to follow policy developments, let alone to understand what is driving them. But the key to understanding the dispute with China is to recognise it is quite different from the disputes the US has provoked with other countries. In fact, it is not a conventional trade dispute at…

British retailer Dixons Carphone reported on Tuesday that ten million customers may have been affected by a cyber-attack. This is yet another example of the privacy breaches that are affecting every day operations of European companies. The Dixons Carphone incident follows other major cyber-attacks. The WannaCry and NotPetya attacks led to substantial financial losses for…