The EU/UK Trade Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was signed in the nick of time just before Christmas 2020, but will it stand the test of time and is it fit for purpose?

Further to the Deutsche Bank flow article on this topic, Post_Brexit TCA: Fit for purpose? published on 11 January 2021, Trade Economist Rebecca Harding is joined in the “Lockdown Studio” by Deutsche Bank Research Economist Sanjay Raja and Cicero/AMO’s Executive Chair Iain Anderson.

The guests agreed the TCA was “always going to be a political agreement and not an economic one”. While it delivered on tariffs, there was no provision at this stage for services or treatment of data. But at least there was a deal.  As Anderson puts it, “The mood music of doing a deal is positive and of course it was not going to boil the ocean”.  The other complication is that Covid-19 masks wider economic effects of the deal at the moment so it’s a matter of seeing how it all works out.

As for the City of London’s status as a financial centre, this does not seem, agree the participants, to be under threat; although they note the City “is recalibrating the way it works with the rest of the world. Other area to watch are initiatives on sustainability and the momentum from the Bank of England on central bank digital currencies.

Do join us to hear more.

• Dr Rebecca Harding, CEO Coriolis Technologies
• Iain Anderson, Executive Chair, Cicero/AMO Group
• Sanjay Raja, Economist Deutsche Bank Research

• Clarissa Dann, Editorial Director, Deutsche Bank