What does the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement mean for the level playing field?

Institute for Government

The UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) reflects the government’s decision to prioritise regulatory autonomy over access to the EU single market. However, the TCA contains a complex set of ‘level playing field’ provisions – designed to ensure fair competition between the EU and the UK – that could limit the government’s room for manoeuvre. These include commitments not to regress from labour, social, environmental and climate standards, and to control subsidies. The deal also allows either side to take ‘rebalancing measures’ if material impacts on trade or investment arise as a result of significant divergence. How constraining are these restrictions? How will both sides approach disputes under the agreement? And how will the provisions of the agreement be interpreted in the years ahead? To discuss these questions and more, we were joined by an expert panel: Professor David Collins, Professor of International Economic Law at City, University of London Dr Professor Holger Hestermeyer, Professor of International and EU law at King’s College London Anneli Howard, Barrister at Monckton Chambers Dr Totis Kotsonis, Partner at Pinsent Masons LLP The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government