This week in trade was dominated by the King’s Speech and messages from Westminster about what the government will focus on in the year ahead.
Despite threats to the premiership of prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, he continues to deliver messages on improved relations with the EU, economic security and help for SMEs, at least according to the legislative agenda set out in parliament by His Majesty King Charles III on Wednesday (13 May).
Big picture: The year of trade-related legislation has been set, after King Charles III outlined the government’s top legislative priorities in his speech to Parliament.
The King’s Speech was heavily trailed ahead of the event, as Starmer tried to regain control of the political agenda with promises on the EU-UK reset. Experts said that “economic security” was a major feature of the speech, with notable bills on UK energy independence and steel nationalisation. The phrase “economic security” mentioned nine times by the King.
The steel nationalisation bill was introduced to parliament today (15 May), with industry minister Chris McDonald talking it up as a “top priority” for the country.
The UK-EU reset is the banner bill for traders, confirming that Starmer is looking to go further and faster in his attempts to rebuild relations with the EU.
Starmer’s promises on ‘dynamic alignment’ with European legislation appear to have won a concession in at least one area this week, after reports emerged that Brussels had conceded on the UK retaining its ban on live animal exports.
There’s been warnings in the past that a deal won’t magically solve the UK’s economic issues, with business groups cautioning ministers about overpromising on the deal. However, Starmer and his Labour government appear set to maintain their approach to moving closer to Europe on a variety of matters, at least in the year ahead.
However, in a sign that parliamentary opposition to the reset might be brewing, this week also saw the creation of an anti-Windsor Framework Parliamentary Group, led by Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Dodds, which also sees the UK-EU reset as a threat to the integrity of Great Britain.
Good week/bad week: A good week for US beef farmers. As US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Beijing (13-15 May), China’s government has approved hundreds of import licenses for American meat companies.
Trump faces domestic pressure from farmers, particularly in farming states like Iowa that rely on agri-exports, so this is likely to be touted as a victory by his administration.
Despite this success, the two-day meeting broke up without any formal trade or cooperation deal announced.
It’s been a bad week for Latvia’s government, which has collapsed over the country’s anti-drone capabilities.
After Russia broke a fragile ceasefire and launched an attack on Ukraine, two stray drones damaged an oil facility, prompting a row between army chiefs and defence minister Andris Spruds.
Latvian PM Evika Silina fired Spruds after the row, prompting Spruds’ Progressive party to withdraw from the governing coalition only months before the country’s next election and plunging the Nato member into chaos.
Adding to the EU’s problems, it later transpired that the stray drones were launched by Ukraine – Kyiv blames Russian electronic interference for the crashes – and similar drone crashed has happened multiple times to neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania.
How’s stat? 0.6%. That’s the rate of UK GDP growth recorded for the first three months of the year. Although this was welcomed by chancellor Rachel Reeves, and adds to some other data points presenting a positive picture for the UK economy, analysts urged caution about the data and warned that there might already be evidence of a downturn.
Quote of the Week: "For the first time in living memory, we are truly alone together.”
Former European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, urging the EU and European leaders to enhance their own defence and economic security rather than relying on the US.
Export controls update: The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) published a Notice to Exporters, detailing how to declare exports under Open General Export Licences (OGELs) or General Export Authorisations (GEAs) using the Customs Declarations System (CDS).
CDS includes a field – currently ‘box 44’ – where a unique licence reference can be entered. Presently, only a small number of OGELs have a condition that requires exporters to enter this field in CDS, but DBT announced it is set to change this.
“We will be updating all relevant OGELs in the coming months to add a condition requiring the licence reference to be entered on CDS for all tangible exports,” DBT said in the notice.
The foreign office also announced the latest sanctions against Russia, targeting 85 individuals and entities accused of aiding in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, and Iran, hitting the country’s network of gangs that target dissidents abroad.
What else we covered: The Member Spotlight turned on Trade Link Customs & Logistics. Agata Borowka spoke to Global Trade Today on how the firm navigated Brexit and continues to help small businesses trade with the EU.
Trade compliance and customs software provider MIC wrote an op-ed for GTT on how AI is poised to rapidly reshape global trade.
Approval of the US-EU trade deal could arrive soon, according to a top European official.
True facts: On this day in 1991, Édith Cresson became the first female prime minister of France after being appointed to the job by French president François Mitterrand.
Later joined by Élisabeth Borne as the second female PM, Cresson lasted less than a year in office. She was highly critical of Japan’s trading practices and later served as a European Commissioner for science, resigning with the rest of the Jacques Santer’s commission after allegations of corruption emerged.
The first elected female PM was Sir Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who took office for the first time in 1960, followed later that decade by India’s Indira Gandhi and Israel’s Golda Meir. The UK’s Margaret Thatcher and Portugal’s Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo became the first and second European female PMs in 1979, over a decade before Cresson’s appointment.
