Four years after the Brexit referendum, the EU and the United Kingdom have reached an agreement on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which follows the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. BLOMSTEIN presents the key contents of the new trade agreement in a briefing series. In Part 1, we have looked at the implementation and substantial changes in the EU-UK relationship. Part 2 focused on the trade in goods. Part 3 looks at a variety of areas from services and investments to digital commerce, energy and the level playing field.

Four years after the Brexit referendum, the EU and the United Kingdom have reached an agreement on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which follows the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. BLOMSTEIN presents the key contents of the new trade agreement in a briefing series. In Part 1, we have looked at the implementation and substantial changes in the EU-UK relationship. Part 2 focuses on the trade in goods.

Four years after the Brexit referendum, the EU and the United Kingdom have reached agreement on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which follows the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. BLOMSTEIN presents the key contents of the new trade agreement in a briefing series. In Part 1, we look at how and in what timeframe the TCA came about, as well as the main substantial changes in the EU’s relationship with the UK.

More than four years after British citizens voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was able to announce: “We have delivered an orderly Brexit” and “The clock is no longer ticking”. It took until Christmas Eve – a week before the end of the transition period – to reach an agreement and avoid the feared “no deal” Brexit. According to Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom would now be “both sovereign and European”.

On 15 December 2020, BeckAkademie Seminare will host a Webinar about the new German Association Act. BLOMSTEIN partners Anna Huttenlauch and Roland M. Stein will discuss together with Adrian Jung (Ministry of Justice) and Sabine Stetter (stetter Rechtsanwälte, Munich) the expected changes and the impacts of the new rules on antitrust, procurement, foreign trade and criminal law.

The hot-off-the-press JUVE Handbook of Business Law Firms 2020/2021 recommends BLOMSTEIN in all our practice areas: Public procurement, antitrust & competition and international trade law. All four BLOMSTEIN partners are listed in their respective fields and are recommended by clients as “best in class”.

The relevance of cybersecurity has increased rapidly. Recently, cyberattacks on the German parliament, the German federal foreign office, and several German prominent public figures have highlighted the importance of securing the integrity of data systems, and of coordination between businesses and state actors in Germany. Similar incidents have had the same effect in other countries. This has in turn led to an increase in trading opportunities and demand for cybersecurity products throughout the world.

For some years now, Brussels has been discussing how to use public procurement law more actively as an instrument of trade policy. The EU has made efforts to end unequal market access for European companies in third countries and to reduce distortions of competition through various measures, such as the rapid signing of bilateral investment agreements. This is due to the fact, that while the EU has largely opened its public procurement markets to companies from third countries, many of these countries do not grant comparable access to EU companies. Moreover, unregulated state subsidies can contribute significantly to unfair competition and play a decisive role in future relations with third countries.

Yesterday, we co-hosted the first “Christ&Company Dialogue” on restrictions on foreign direct investments together with Christ&Company.

Trade law compliance and public procurement law expert Bruno Andrioli Galvão joined BLOMSTEIN as independent Senior Trade Advisor in September 2020.