Trade Negotiations

The IFSL Trade Policy team is involved in multilateral and bilateral negotiations, as well as making the case for other methods of liberalisation in third markets.

The WTO and Multilateral Negotiations
IFSL believes that trade agreements are most effective when negotiated on a multilateral basis. Multilateral agreements offer the opportunity to secure genuine trade liberalisation on the basis of legal and binding provisions that apply to all.

The Trade Policy Group has been active in pushing for a strong outcome to the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Services account for more than 70% of the European economy, and Europe stands to lose out unless the Doha Round includes an ambitious services package. IFSL provides input to the multilateral negotiations through its network of contacts in the EU Commission and WTO.

EU Free Trade Agreements and Bilateral Negotiations
With Regional Trade Agreements now covering more than 50% of all world trade, IFSL is increasingly active in ensuring that European agreements reflect the interests of the UK-based financial services sector.

At present the European Commission is negotiating with Korea, India and the ASEAN countries. The Trade Policy Group has been active in bringing together the UK financial services position on all three sets of negotiations, and ensuring that the EU negotiating position reflects these priorities.

Other Approaches to Market Opening
The IFSL Trade Policy team is active in seeking new mechanisms through which to secure liberalisation of trade in services. While traditional, negotiated, liberalisation of trade barriers remains the most important channel for trade policy, we continue to pursue complementary activities.

Examples of such non-traditional liberalisation activities IFSL has been involved with include the Joint-Economic Trade Cooperation (JETCO) processes with India, Brazil and others. Our Trade Policy Group also contributes to regulatory dialogue and cooperation with overseas markets.