Peter Mandelson, Global Counsel's Chairman: In a recent opinion piece, Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador in London, asked if the United Kingdom will choose win-win cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative. The same question can be asked of the European Union.
A gathering of experts on Brexit and trade negotiations concluded that the bumpiest ride is yet to come. Stephen Adams, executive director at Global Counsel, says the departure from the EU is the most significant economic demerger since the second world war.
Peter Mandelson, a former European Trade Commissioner and British First Secretary of State, talks about the trade spats between the U.S. and China, and the Brexit negotiations. He speaks on the sidelines of J.P.Morgan's 15th Morgan Global China Summit in Beijing with "Bloomberg Markets: Asia."
Alex Dawson, UK Politics and Policy Practice Lead at Global Counsel: As Conservative leadership contenders get ready for the minute Theresa May announces her resignation, prevailing wisdom in Westminster is that the winner will be the one who most successfully reflects the party’s membership on Brexit. As with all simple wisdoms, the truth is more complex. There is more at play than Brexit in winning the votes of the Tory faithful, and candidates who want to win the peace, and the war, will welcome a longer campaign that focuses on the other big issues facing the country.
Matt Chorley is joined by Alex Dawson, a former Home Office adviser to Theresa May who became her political director in No 10, now a Practice Lead at Global Counsel, who describes how a short leadership campaign left her unprepared for what came next.
Britain’s failure to achieve a withdrawal agreement with the EU has had a very negative impact on the UK’s relationships in Asia and it could deal a serious blow to its trade with the region. “New agreements will need to be negotiated,” Ying Staton, Head of Asia at Global Counsel said. However, “Some countries have made it clear that the UK will need to offer deep concessions, if they are to secure the same preferential terms that were extended to the EU.”
Peter Mandelson, co-founder and chairman at Global Counsel and former European Union trade official, discusses the potential for a Brexit extension and the need for citizens to approve the final deal.
U.S. and European trade negotiators face growing domestic pressure over agriculture, with clashing demands threatening to rekindle a tit-for-tat economic war. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will meet in Washington on Wednesday for their fifth round of talks, now under pressure to avoid a fight over agriculture that neither appears to want. “It’s hard to see how you bridge the gap,” said Stephen Adams, Global Counsel. If Mr. Lighthizer faces political pressure to demand quick EU concessions on agriculture, “then the EU has fairly limited room for maneuver.”
Alex Dawson, Practice Lead for UK Politics and Policy at Global Counsel, discusses most recent Brexit developments.
Whatever accommodation is reached in the current US-China trade conflict, there is no doubt that the global trading system has entered 2019 in a state of crisis. While it may be easy to point the finger at United States President Donald Trump, broader structural and political forces have been weakening the international system for quite some time. Peter Mandelson, Global Counsel Chairman, for China Daily.
