OK where do I file my compensation law suit ?

Great article @antonspisak.bsky.social

How do you stop getting 90% of your @bsky.app feed being about US politics ?

I see that the EU supported China in arguing that the US Inflation Reduction Act breached WTO rules, with which unsurprisingly the WTO panel agreed. How does that square with Buy European restrictions I wonder ?

Always goods to read @robertshrimsley.bsky.social Rutherford Hall @financialtimes.com. An adjacent article on gym equipment seems to have escaped from the column…

Would you say that a speech one of whose main points was misleading was brilliant ? I agree with Martin Wolf @financialtimes.com that Mark Carney’s comparison of Communism and the rules based system was misleading (“The reality of a world after rupture”). That seems a pretty major flaw in the speech

Great analysis in trademark style !

Having to seek refuge on @bsky.app from the ugliness on X. The Andy Burnham recriminations are like a war with no prisoners taken.

The question we’re all asking is whether FIFA will demand that President Trump hands back the world peace award they gave him recently.

Ignacio Bercero going for the jugular here. This means it really is serious. www.bruegel.org/first-glance...

Anything happening today ?

“The internet is not a fantasy. It is a real place, real life. X remains a public square. Bluesky, by contrast, is where the teachers’ pets meet after class to study.” Stella Tsantekidou @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Ouch ! But true.

“The dangerous triumph of neo-mercantilism” great article by Martin Wolf @financialtimes.com. Most politicians are instinctively neomercantilist: they laud exports and decry imports. But many also see that better living standards require economic change. That’s the case for liberalism.

It’s bad enough that @gideonrachman.bsky.social ‘s articles @FT are always wholly predictable. But he’s stretched the elastic even further by suggesting that Trump’s tariffs should “prompt Keir Starmer to rejoin the single market.” What, tomorrow ? How about the EU just drop its barriers instead ?

USTR finding that things not entirely going their way.

America belatedly discovers the benefits of multilateral trade liberalisation … @financialtimes.com

Good news for trade and common sense for Canada. There was never any justification for the EV tariffs.

It looks like we can stop talking about China’s surplus of over $1trn. That is goods alone. China is likely to run a deficit of more than $200bn in services. None of that avoids the challenges posed by China’s approach on trade but it is misleading that the media only focus on goods.

The futile search for the cost free tax rise goes on: at @drodrik.bsky.social talk at #LSEevents yesterday the good old transaction tax aka stamp duty got rather too sympathetic a response. I’m sure that would encourage savers to put their cash into the shares the UK Govt is trying to push.

Great to hear @drodrik.bsky.social speak at #LSEevents this evening on “shared prosperity in a fractured world”. Lots to ponder on raising living standards, tackling climate change and relieving global poverty. Much rests on an industrial policy for services NOT manufacturing.

What should businesses be looking our for on international trade in 2026 ? My thoughts on the US, UK/EU, China and the competing dynamics of fragmentation and alliance building, for Pagefield: www.pagefield.co.uk/news-insight...

The Theresa May EU deal (which Labour opposed) had: - alignment on industrial goods regulation - freedom to diverge on services - a non CU common tariff (“magical thinking”) Ironically it looks like we are trying to go back to exactly that.

@samuelmarclowe.bsky.social given the title of your substack we are waiting for your view on the US proposals to reform the WTO, notably by doing away with the principle of MFN. Are we in an era of LFN (Least Favoured Nation, with no special deals) ?

Repeat after me: “there is no such thing as ‘a’ customs union with the EU. There is only membership of ‘the’ EU Customs Union.” In the sense that any country with ‘a’ CU (only Turkey btw) simply follows the rules set by EU member states. Better to join the EU @wesstreeting.bsky.social

“Car industry issues warning on EU plan to ease petrol ban” @financialtimes.com This looks like a classic case of complexity heaped on complexity to create some theoretical model which is totally unworkable in practice. It is all too easy for Government - at whatever level - to do this.

You can debate the cost of rejoining Erasmus but it makes a lot more sense than rejoining the Customs Union outside the EU.

Yeah I had some problems with the Greens but that’s gone away fortunately.

This is what happens when you let Parliament start meddling with the text of trade deals ! borderlex.net/2025/12/11/c...

I’m afraid the BBC has fallen at the first hurdle in explaining the Customs Union. Apparently it creates tariff free trade (which we already have with the EU). @samuelmarclowe.bsky.social your help needed.

My letter @thetimes.com on why it makes more sense to rejoin the EU than join their customs union or single market but stay out, which would pose major risks for the UK.

I have never been one to have our illusions that the EU “needs” the UK to be successful. It is much more powerful than the UK. But in the light of some of the economic policies emanating from Brussels (steel tariffs on everyone; domestic content requirements) I am starting to revise my opinion….

This is also a breach of the EU’s WTO obligations as far as I can see. Or maybe the EU now thinks cars are a matter of national security. Where have I heard that before and what did the EU say about it ?

Europe goes back to the 1970s: “Brussels pushes for more to be ‘made in Europe’” @financialtimes.com

I’m sure Minouche Shafik is far too intelligent to suggest simply joining the EU Customs Union without any influence over the way it works and the tariffs it sets, which would be the only option on offer from the EU, leaving aside any financial contribution which might be needed.

Funeral for a friend. Pascal Lamy points the finger at himself when he criticises the Dutch Single Market Cioner for actually trying to do his job and complete the single market for services. “Politically hamfisted” means opposed by France and Germany. Championed by the UK. @financialtimes.com

@eddavey.libdems.org.uk on pm programme this evening saying he wants a bespoke customs union with the EU. The only respect in which it might be bespoke is in terms of coverage. Otherwise it’s just following what the EU decides. One can argue for that, but let’s be upfront about it.

Apparently the UK budget hasn’t happened on Bluesky.

We spend months telling the US what a bad idea it is to put up tariffs and then follow suit by removing the de minimis exemption. Bad policy making. More red tape, less competition, higher prices. If you are worried about the high street, cut tariffs generally on these items.

Either a case of the pot calling the kettle black; or a shining example of using the multilateral trading system to address concerns about protectionism… borderlex.net/2025/10/21/b...

@alanbeattie.bsky.social Can’t you stop your fellow @financialtimes.com journalists suggesting that the Gulf trade deal, even taken with others, “would reduce the need for big tax rises” ! There is however a certain irony in the Govts position, compared with their views in Opposition.

My letter in today’s @thetimes.com on the IMF’s analysis of China’s trade surplus. Persuading China to change policy is likely to be more effective if it sees change as being in its own interest. I think the picture is more complex than this report suggests.

As one would expect, Ignacio Bercero makes some powerful points in this article about why the EU has gone over the top in its steel protection measures. One can imagine why that might have happened of course, but it’s still depressing. www.bruegel.org/first-glance...

The EU’s steel tariffs seem to be straight from the Trump playbook: start ridiculously high then negotiate down to something slightly less crazy. Apart from the dubious precedent, let’s see how the EU machine copes with “Art of the deal” policy making. @ec.europa.eu

Rereading @drodrik.bsky.social book Straight Talk about Trade from 2018. If it was relevant in 2018 then it’s even more so now. His thesis that over dogmatic defence of free trade has damaged its attraction is right, though that’s been reinforced by a decade of undue criticism.

Hoping to crowd source my briefing on pharma tariffs for a visit to the US next week. What do people think it means for UK businesses exporting to the US/ EU businesses doing likewise. My recollection is that EU agreement capped pharma tariffs. @samuelmarclowe.bsky.social @davidheniguk.bsky.social

Oh good, the FT has @inumanak.bsky.social trying to balance out the nonsense about a new US led trading order. Or indeed deglobalisation. Or the many other fashionable arguments about trade that aren't in fact happening.

Interesting article in @thetimes.com suggesting HMT want to narrow list of protected species and change the precautionary principle, in both cases diverging from EU law, to make infrastructure projects easier. I recall then CSA saying UK approach to precautionary principle bound to diverge from EU.

“US and EU close in on 15% tariff agreement” @financialtimes.com I look forward to all those people who excoriated the UK US deal as unprincipled, contrary to WTO rules and generally pathetic saying the same about this one, if it happens.

“a proposal to offer a credit based on the US content of a [car] company’s exports from the US that can then be applied to the content that it is importing.” EU/US trade negotiations @financialtimes.com Almost as nutty as the UK/EU deal on RoO on EVs, which exploded on contact with reality.

My letter in @financialtimes.com Thanks to my time at the UK IP Office, I hope I can contribute to the current debate on copyright and AI !