Trade Without Tariffs: Taking Back Control of Trade?

In December 2020, the United Kingdom and the European Union signed the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to facilitate the U.K.’s divergence from EU rules during the Brexit process. London partner Melanie Wadsworth and trainee solicitor Christopher Jefferies authored the article for The World Financial Review, “Trade Without Tariffs: Taking Back Control of Trade?” that addresses the nontariff barriers to trade the TCA has erected.

In the article, Wadsworth and Jefferies discuss how the nontariff barriers have impacted U.K. small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and outline how SMEs can respond to these barriers. The authors expand on three options that SMEs that trade in the EU have to comply with the TCA: 1) Stop selling to the EU; 2) Keep selling to the EU, shipping from the U.K. and navigating all the new barriers; or 3) Keep selling to the EU, but by setting up distribution centers in the EU, and then shipping their products from there.