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Independence Day or Groundhog May?
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On 29 March 2019, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland cast off its shackles, and set course for a new, independent life outside of the European Union. Right?
err... not quite.
One wouldn't be blamed for losing track of just what was amended, debated, amended again, voted on and ultimately rejected this month. Theresa May presented a second Withdrawal Agreement after the historic defeat of the first, which was also defeated, and then presented a markedly similar third Withdrawal Agreement which suffered the same fate
(I'm sensing a pattern here)
. The long and short of the situation is that the UK now has until 12 April 2019 to pass an agreement in the House of Commons to determine what the UK's future trading relationship with the EU will look like. If they don't, the UK leaves the EU without a deal - a scenario BAB
has made clear across the past two years will be extremely challenging for business.
The silver lining (
better understood as that last bit of aluminium foil that's impossible to get off the cardboard roll
) is that in a previous wave of indicative votes, MPs narrowly (312-308) voted to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstance, which BAB
welcomed with caution
. The down side? This vote wasn't only extremely narrow, it was also legally non-binding, so the legal default is to leave on 12 April without a deal in place with the EU.
So where does this leave us? Well, yesterday evening the House of Commons again voted on
4 alternatives
to Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement (currently at its 3rd draft, and rumoured to be approaching a 4th) to gauge where the support in Parliament lies. To anyone who's been hiding under a rock these past few weeks
(room for one more?)
and somehow didn't see last night's results it can best be summarised as 'nothing has changed'. No amendment received a majority in the house, but not without some close defeats:
Motion C
: Committing the government to negotiating "a permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU" as part of any Brexit deal. - Defeated by just 4 votes.
Motion D:
Referred to as Common Market 2.0, it would mean joining the European Free Trade Association and European Economic Area. - Defeated by 21 votes.
Motion E:
Which would see a confirmatory public vote on any Brexit deal passed by Parliament. - Defeated by 13 votes, but received the highest number of Ayes, with 292.
So, Independence Day? No, at least,
not yet
. The past month, and indeed two years has felt a lot more like Harold Ramis'
Groundhog Day
,
in which weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) finds himself living the same day over and over again. After spending days indulging himself with drinking, dangerous driving and other debauchery, Murray eventually puts aside his selfishness and uses the opportunity to better himself and the lives of others, impressing the girl of his dreams with his new approach to life, breaking the loop and living happily ever after in
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
While it’s easy to sit here and make comparisons between a family movie from 1993 and one of the most significant political events of the 21st Century, one nonetheless cannot help but feel there are lessons to be learned from Bill Murray's fictional experience. We have now passed the 29 March deadline originally set out by triggering Article 50 to leave the European Union, and yet the UK
A.
Hasn't left, and
B.
Doesn't have an agreed plan for what it'll do when it does leave.
The UK has enjoyed two years of little-to-no noteworthy progress to bring it to this point, so it's now time to take a leaf out of Phil Connors’ book, leave the self-interest and party politics at the door and work across party lines to agree upon a deal because unlike Phil, the UK's Groundhog Day
will
end on 12 April, but I don't know if it will be happily ever after.
If you thought our plate wasn't full enough, March has been non-stop for BAB in both London and New York. We've enjoyed discussions and meetings with everyone from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, to the French Ambassador to the UK, alongside some excellent panel discussions with our colleagues across our membership. You can find out just about everything we got up to this month below.
Introduction by:
Dominic Parker, Communications Manager, BritishAmerican Business London
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Events, Media & Initiatives
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'A UK-USA FTA Unpacked' Panel Discussion at Herbert Smith Freehills London
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On 21 March, BAB London was at the offices of members
Herbert Smith Freehills
for our 'UK-USA FTA Unpacked' briefing.
We were delighted to be joined by an expert panel including:
- The Rt Hon. Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Fulham and Chelsea, and Ex-Minister of State for Trade Policy
- David Henig, Director, The UK Trade Policy Project, The European Centre for International Political Economy
- Dr Emily Lydgate, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law, University of Sussex
- Ted Bromund Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
- Lode Van Den Hende, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills
And wonderfully moderated by Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, US Geoeconomics Fellow, US and the Americas Programme, The Royal Institute of International Affairs,
Chatham House.
This event ‘unpacked’ how a future UK-US FTA could look, and what avenues government and businesses would have to take, or not take, to bring it to a successful conclusion.
The key takeaway? Such an agreement doesn't
necessarily
have to be called an FTA...
We'd like to thank all of our speakers for their time and their excellent insights, and to our hosts
Herbert Smith Freehills
.
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The Needs of Businesses Need to be Met for Trade to Thrive
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BritishAmerican Business was glad to join leading members and prominent stakeholders in a special feature for the
New Statesman's
Spotlight magazine
, focussing on the 'Special Relationship' between the UK & USA.
Duncan Edwards, CEO, provided the following article on the importance of listening to the needs of business in trade negotiations (extract):
"Of course, there is nothing new about American companies investing in the UK or British companies building their businesses in the States; in fact, data suggests that more capital has been committed from both countries into the other than in any other bilateral relationship. There is more than a combined trillion dollars of capital that has been put to work by businesses over the years and far more than a million people in each market work for businesses owned by companies from the other.
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This combination of investment capital and jobs (together with a vibrant two-way trade in goods and services) makes the US-UK economic corridor the most successful in the world."
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BAB London Meets with International Students to Discuss Brexit and Transatlantic Relations
Discussion centred on the special relationship, transatlantic business and of course, Brexit. Presentations delivered by Emanuel Adam, Director of Policy and Trade, Theo Bachrach, Policy & Public Affairs Manager and Gabriela Beatham-Garcia, Policy Assistant, looked at everything from chlorinated chicken, to how international businesses are navigating these turbulent times.
We put a tremendous amount of value in the work we do with younger people interested in the future of the transatlantic relationship. In April, we'll be launching our latest publication: 'Time To Listen: Perspectives from the Future Transatlantic Leaders Programme' which presents the views of students across the UK on what the special relationship means to them and how we can strengthen it further - More information
here.
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BAB London Welcomes All to its Open House!
BAB opened its doors to all in March with an open house evening at its London offices in Kensington. We welcomed members and non-members alike, and even had a visit from some ex-members of staff.
We'd like to thank everyone that took the time out of their evening to attend, and look forward to the next one!
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BAB Welcomes Three New Members to the Policy Steering Committee
This month, BAB welcomed three new members to its policy steering committee, which helps lead BAB's policy position on current affairs such as Brexit and UK-US Trade - Congratulations to our new appointees!
- Howard Miller, Director, Global Government Affairs, Citi
- Frances Devlin, Regional Director, Global Policy & Public Affairs, Pfizer
- Jillian Mertsch, Director Government Affairs & Regulatory Affairs, Interdigital
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BAB London Joins AmChams Across Europe for AmCham EU Transatlantic Week 2019
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Emanuel Adam, Executive Director, and Veronica Glab, Member Relations Manager joined friends and colleagues from across Europe for
AmCham EU
's Transatlantic Week 2019.
Emanuel and Veronica were treated to some fantastic panel discussions and talks including from US Ambassador to the EU,
The Hon. Gordan D. Sondland, and had the opportunity to network with colleagues from AmCham chapters across Europe.
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The Transatlantic Week also saw the launch of the new 'The Transatlantic Economy 2019' publication, produced by AmCham EU, in partnership with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A fantastic, well-researched publication, The Transatlantic Economy 2019 is a go-to guide for comprehensive information about the current state of the transatlantic economy including statistics and analysis down to the state level.
For more information on the publication, or to read online, please
click here
.
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BAB New York welcomed their good friend Edward Price,
Head of Economic & Financial Sector Policy at the
Department for International Trade
to their offices this month for an informal chat on Brexit, and the global trade in services.
Many thanks to Ed for taking time out of his schedule to speak with us, and we look forward to hosting him again!
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BAB Welcomes New Appointees to Board of Directors Executive Committee
On 7 March, BAB announced the appointment of two new members of its Board of Directors Executive Committee; Bridget Walsh, Global Head of Transaction Tax,
EY
; and Sally King, COO,
Akin Group.
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BAB Director of Policy & Trade Emanuel Adam Speaks to BBC World News on a 'No-Deal' Brexit
On 22 March, Director of Policy & Trade Emanuel Adam spoke with Ben Bland on
Talking Business
, to discuss the transatlantic perspective on Brexit and the possibility of a 'no-deal' scenario. You can find a clip of the interview
here
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2019 Tax Reforms: Hidden Impact & Opportunities
On 5 March, BAB New York welcomed attendees to the offices of
Barton LLP
for its '
Tax Reforms: Hidden Impact & Opportunities' briefing event, sponsored by
Frank Hirth.
Members had the opportunity to network over breakfast and took in the latest information on major tax reforms in the US and abroad.
We'd like to thank our excellent speakers (L-R): Mark Allsopp, Tax Manager,
Frank Hirth LLP
; Tamra Eker, Executive Director, BAB; Steve Christiano, Associate Director,
Frank Hirth LLP
;
Abe Mastbaum
, Tax & Capital Markets Counsel,
Barton LLP
;
James Guadiana
, Partner,
Barton LLP;
and
Eric Collins
, Managing Director,
Frank Hirth LLP.
We would also like to extend thanks to our friends at
Barton LLP
for hosting us, and
Frank Hirth LLP
for their kind sponsorship of this event.
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BAB London Welcomes the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Annual Meeting in London
Activities included a reception in the Houses of Parliament in Westminster and a series of panel discussions on Brexit, kindly hosted by BAB member Dow Jones and contributed to by colleagues from Herbert Smith Freehills, Thomson Reuters and the UK Government.
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BAB London Welcomes Senator Chris Murphy to London
Connecticut Senator, Chris Murphy visited London this month to speak with Members of Parliament, members of the press, and with the US Ambassador to the UK, Robert Wood Johnson at the US Embassy London. During his visit, representatives from BAB London were pleased to meet him alongside members of our network for a productive discussion on the future of the UK-US trade and investment relationship.
You can find out more about Senator Murphy's UK visit
here.
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BAB London Joins Transatlantic Business Leaders to Meet with French Ambassador to the United Kingdom
On 27 March, representatives from BAB London joined our members from leading transatlantic businesses for a lunch meeting with the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Jean-Pierre Jouyet at the Ambassador's Residence in London.
The meeting provided a fantastic opportunity to discuss the US-European transatlantic relationship, amongst other issues of the day, in the incredible settings of the Ambassador's Residence.
We'd like to thank all of our attendees, as well as extend our sincerest thanks to Ambassador Jouyet for hosting us at his wonderful home.
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