Media Coverage

Media Coverage

FT
| Brexit negotiators identify UK’s trump cards

London is confident it has a strong hand — the question is how to use it. The calculations are like no other negotiation; even trade talks are a poor guide, as they typically involve willing partners aiming for future liberalisation.

“Brexit is a completely different dynamic,” said Stephen Adams of the Global Counsel advisory group. “You have an unwilling partner on the EU side. The aim is not hypothetical new market access but determining how far to roll back the liberalisation of billions of euros in trade that is already flowing.”

Read more

Al Jazeera English
| The UK's JAM families and the cost of Brexit

It's estimated that leaving the EU will cost Britain $280m a week over the next five years. In the first budget since Brexit, UK Finance Minister Philip Hammond downgraded his 2017 economic forecast and said the national debt would grow. In fact, it will balloon to above 90% of the UK's gross domestic product. That will wipe out any savings made from not having to pay into the EU's budget. Will the new budget help the so-called JAM families, those households "just about managing" to make ends meet? Gregor Irwin, chief economist at the Global Counsel, looks at the cost of Brexit.

Read more

FT
| Brexit Britain faces threat of higher EU barriers

Europe’s financial rules are shifting under the feet of Brexit negotiators, as the EU moves to harden its regulatory regime in ways that could shut out the City of London after the UK leaves the union.

Stephen Adams, partner at Global Counsel, the advisory group, said: “In some ways this is a reminder that there is a basic asymmetry in the EU-UK relationship. It is their market and they will set the terms for accessing it. Clearly, not everybody in the single market believes that London’s place as Europe’s financial centre is inevitable or eternal.”

Read more

FT
| How a hard Brexit might affect three industries

Boston Consulting Group, law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and advisory group Global Counsel teamed up to consider the potential impact on three different sectors if the UK left both the EU single market and the EU customs union without any new trade agreements in place.

After looking at a fictional automobile manufacturer, fashion retailer and chocolatier, the group concluded that the carmaker would be hit the hardest, while the retailer would feel the least impact.

Read more

Global Trade Review
| Trump win pushes EU to protectionist stance

Donald Trump’s electoral win has boosted populist stances in Europe and created uncertainty for the banking sector.

Advisor at think tank Global Counsel, David Capparelli, comments: “I think the move towards a more protectionist stance was on the way for quite a long time before the Trump victory. If you look at the French proposal that was announced a couple of days ago on how to reform EU trade policy it does go in that direction. But I’m not entirely sure this is going to translate into a more protectionist policy – but a less liberal trade policy.”

Read more

Bloomberg
| Brexit Bulletin: what does Trump mean for brexit?

Will the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House affect the departure of the U.K. from the European Union?

To Stephen Adams, a partner at Global Counsel, Trump’s victory means EU governments will try to “squeeze the U.K. harder to contain domestic populism” by showing there is nothing to be gained by leaving the EU.

Only if Trump’s transition to power is messy enough to spook financial markets could the U.K. and EU agree to better “choreograph” when and how to start the talks, he said.

Read more

Global Trade Review
| EU and Canada make landmark CETA pact

One major sticking point to the CETA deal has been the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which will allow companies to sue countries over any new law or policy that they consider to be discriminatory towards their investments.

“The ISDS issue has been one of the primary drivers of growing concerted opposition to CETA, TTIP and the wider EU FTA agenda. It is fair to assume that carving out investor protection chapters from FTA negotiations would make the latter far less contentious,” Daniel Capparelli of advisory firm Global Counsel tells GTR.

Read more

The Straits Times
| Headwinds for a 'soft' Brexit

The events of the last month have been a sobering wake-up call, both to businesses which believed the government was bound to protect their interests, and those in Britain and on the continent who doubted the government's resolve to break with the European market. In the bold rhetoric of the Prime Minister's speech and in the tenor of new policies such as the "naming and shaming" of businesses that employed foreign workers, the current administration seemed to put deliberate distance between itself and cosmopolitan, business interests. The realisation that Mrs May was leaning towards a "hard" Brexit over a "soft" one sent sterling to new lows.

Read more

Bloomberg
| Bankers quitting Brexit Britain risk budget hole for Hammond

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is facing a fiscal hit if bankers carry out their threat to quit London to protect their businesses against Brexit.

“The worry for the government is the banks end up taking a chunk of the tax base with them,” said Gregor Irwin, chief economist at Global Counsel, a London-based consultancy that has been advising the financial sector on Brexit.

Read more

Bloomberg
| Lawyers are thriving because of Brexit

A Brexit settlement that leaves the U.K. poorer will ultimately mean trouble for purveyors of advice, says Gregor Irwin, chief economist at London consulting firm Global Counsel. “We’re still very early in this process, and we haven’t yet seen the real impact of Brexit on big investment decisions,” he says. “Lawyers and consultants aren’t going to be immune to a broader economic slowdown.”

Read more