This week the Secretary of State for International Trade, Kemi Badenoch MP delivered her first keynote speech in the role to an audience of US investors at the Atlantic Future Forum in New York. In her speech, Kemi mentioned the work of the UK/US Trade Dialogues on diversifying supply chains which is a key area of interest for the Chamber.
India is proposing to adopt 15% additional tariffs on the importing of 22 products from the UK in response to continued UK safeguard measures on steel imports. The Indian Government claims a substantial fall in steel exports to the UK worth $247m in duties. It is proposing to make good these losses by raising a similar amount from UK imports including cheese, whisky, oils, cosmetic products, engine parts and turbo jets. This was notified yesterday to the WTO Council on Trade in Goods
The European Commission is proposing to adopt tougher sanctions on Russia including on services trade. We are awaiting an update from the Department for International Trade (DIT) as to whether the UK and US will be seeking to further strengthen their sanctions packages.
This week, the BCC was briefed by DIT on the progress of free trade agreement negotiations with the Gulf Co-operation Council and on accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The BCC is also engaging with DIT over the India negotiations, still expected to be concluded by the end of next month
