General trade

Question 1

What are export restrictions?

Answer 1

When a government imposes a limit on how much of a good an industry is allowed to export (send to other countries)

Eg EU have export restriction on seed potatoes from UK

Question 2

Why are export restrictions imposed ?

Answer 2

To encourage food security in the domestic market (essentially making sure there’s enough supply domestically as often it’s more profitable to export )

Question 3

How many FTA’s does UK have?

Answer 3

39

Question 4

Geopolitical trade flow elasticity

Answer 4

The impact that a widening of the gap in voting records between countries has on the amount they trade

Question 5

What currency do countries send their exports in?

Answer 5

Their currency i.e UK exports is in £

Question 6

Trade diversion

Answer 6

Trade diversion is when when trade deals lead to imports shifting from low-cost more efficient countries to higher-cost countries.

Question 7

Whats the BRES Employment app?

Answer 7

Aadam’s app, shows different industries and employment levels within different regions

Question 8

What’s the ONS family spending report?

Answer 8

Helps us understand how much and what households spend on-.

This can help us decide where tariffs should be liberalised ie if households spend a lot on a good that we import , liberalisation could be ideal.

Question 9

What is HS System?
How often are HS codes updated?

Answer 9

Harmonised System, it’s a standardised way of categorising traded products, it’s used around the world.

The codes go up to 6 digits - beyond this countries can choose their own codes.

It’s administered by the World Customs Organisation and is updated every 5 years

Question 10

Intermediate Good

Answer 10

Products used to help production of something else (as opposed to being consumed in its own right)

Question 11

Difference between HS and CN?

Answer 11

HS codes run down to 6 digits, and are harmonised across the globe if a code is longer than that (as they are when we’re discussing tariffs that is a country specific code.
Eg. two 8 digit codes - one from the UK and one from India, they may have the same number but they’re not the same code. Anything longer than that, are UK (and EU codes) only.

CN- Combined Nomenclature is what the UK and EU calls codes beyond 6 digits (other countries call it something else

Question 12

LUC

Answer 12

Land Use Change- its another way of analysing environmental impact

I.e when land goes from being a grassland to being used to build houses on

Question 13

levelling up

Answer 13

Trying to ‘protect’ agri-food sectors that have employment in economically vulnerable regions. E.g industrial areas

i.e if there’s high levels of unemployment in an area perhaps we shouldn’t liberalise tariffs (because that would encourage more imports (competition))

Question 14

What’s CPTPP

Answer 14

CPTPP ( Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership): Canada, Australia, New Zealand ,Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam

51 countries in total

Question 15

What’s Trade Facilitation

Answer 15

how easy it is to trade with other countries

Question 16

Who decides whether to use preferential tariff or MFN?

Answer 16

The importer

They need to check the goods meet the rules of origin, and get the proof of origin

Question 17

What are the highest priority FTA’s?

Answer 17

DELETE

Question 18

How do you decide priority of FTA?

Answer 18

-Economic value that we stand to gain from the deal
-Policy priority (DBT/DEFRA), how important are they viewed as

Question 19

Link between SITC and FFD?

Answer 19

FFD products sit under SITC, e.g. SITC code ‘02’ is Dairy Products and Bird Eggs

One of the FFD items in this is Butter

Question 20

How often are HS Codes updated? Who updates them?

Answer 20

Every 5 years

The WCO updates them

Question 22

What are the 8 stages of completing an FTA?

Answer 22

1.Pre-mandate
2.Mandate setting
3.Develop MA goods offer
4. Active negotiations
5.End game
6.Agreement in principle
7.Signature and post signature
8.Entry into force

Question 23

What is the Pre-Mandate stage and what tools help with this?

Answer 23

It’s where we research our trade with the country and start to think about what are our offensives and defensives could be.

-Bronze decks

-Market access app

-Trade facilitation Profiles

-Country profiles (stats)

Question 24

What is the Mandate Stage and what tools do we use for it?

Answer 24

We think about offensives and defensives in more detail.

Tools:
-Tariff Model (low priority and full)

-PSR analysis

-Modelling ,UKAMM (UK Agriculture Market Model)

Question 25

What is the ‘Developing MA Offer’ stage of FTA trade negotiations and what tools help with it?

Answer 25

Thinking about what products we’re willing to remove tariffs from.

Tools:
-Tariff Line Categorisation tool (takes rankings from tariff model and builds a suggested tariff offer)

Question 26

What is the ‘Active Negotiations’ stage of the FTA life cycle

What tools help with this stage ?

Answer 26

It’s when the countries get into talks to decide what eachother can give up and benefit from eachother

Tools:

-Offer Comparison tool (compares the UKs and partners offer in terms of percentage of lines fully liberalised)

-Live comparison tool

-Core scripts/ Support briefing (key stats for negotiations)

Question 27

What’s the AIP/Signature stage of the FTA cycle and what tools help with it?

Answer 27

When the agreement is signed

Tools:
-Impact assessment
-Modelling of argument

Question 28

What’s the Implementation stage of the FTA cycle and what tools help with it

Answer 28

When the agreement is actually used.

Tools:
Monitoring -PUR apps

Question 29

How often are HS codes updated?

Answer 29

Every 5 years, the next update will be in 2027

Question 30

What does negotiating capital mean?

Answer 30

There may be lines that the UK is hesitant to liberalise tariffs on if its suspected it could be used as a bargaining chip later on in negotistions.

Question 31

What are domestic sensitivities?

Answer 31

Sectors that would see a large price drop from liberalisation (e.g. poultry, sheep, beef) could be harmed. Because these producers would likely have to face cheaper foreign competitors there may be a drop in employment as demand falls

Question 32

What environmental impacts have to be thought about when considering what lines to drop tariffs on?

Answer 32

Some commodities may have extremely negative impacts if the tariff is dropped e.g. almond milk is largely flown in.

Question 33

What is preference erosion?

Answer 33

We offer lower preferential tariffs to help developing countries but if many lines are liberalised in the UKGT this preference margin would fall.

Question 34

What is animal welfare in the context of tariff liberalisation?

Answer 34

We should be hesitant to lower tariffs on lines where high imports from countries with animal welfare issuesis a concern.