Rachel Reeves on Brexit

University of Bradford

Author Chemical Engineer  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

Yesterday a "Creative Economic Conference" took place at the University of Bradford as part of the Bradford Literature Festival.  One of the events was an interview of the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP by the economist, Mr Andy Haldane. I attended the interview because Ms Reeves is likely to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer should the Labour Party win the next general election.  Sadly, it took place at the same time as two other events I would gladly have attended, a Roundtable Discussion on Artificial Intelligence and a Trade Relations Roundtable on Business with India.

In her interview, Ms Reeves described the UK's Trade and Cooperation Agreement as a "botched deal" so I asked her how the Labour Party proposed to improve the deal were it to win the next general election in the short Q&A that followed.  To her credit, the Shadow Chancellor gave me a very straight answer.  She did not promise negotiations to rejoin either the European Union or even the Single Market or Customs Arrangement but she did seek improvements to the Agreement in such areas as veterinary controls, the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and participating in Horizon Europe again.

That was not enough to persuade me to support the Labour Party but it is probably as much as any of the unionist parties in the UK can offer.  Scottish, Northern Irish and probably Welsh nationalists can go further because the Conservative Party is weak in those nations and the prospect of rejoining the EU is part of the case for secession or annexation by the Republic of Ireland.  Until there is a consensus for rejoining the EU in England the remaining member EU member states will not take an application from the UK to rejoin the EU seriously. Such a consensus would require a change of attitude towards the EU on the part of the Conservative Party.  Similar changes of attitude on similarly important issues have occurred in the past but a volte-face on EU membership on less favourable terms than before is not on the cards yet.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

First Meeting of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement Partnership Council

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Jane Lambert

Art 7 (1) of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part OJ L 149, 30.4.2021, p. 10–2539) establishes a Partnership Council consisting of representatives of the European Union and of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to oversee the attainment of the objectives of the Agreement and to supervise and facilitate the Agreement's implementation and application.  The Council meets at the request of the EU or the UK, and, in any event, at least once a year.

The first meeting of the Council took place at Admiralty House on 9 June 2021 between 08:00 and 09:30.  It was attended by 44 delegates from the UK and 50 from the EU.  The British delegation was led by Lord Frost and Penny Mordaunt MP and consisted of representatives of the Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Manx and Channel Island governments and civil servants. The EU delegation was led by Maros Šefčovič and consisted of Commission officials and representatives of the EU member states.

The reason I have not mentioned this meeting before is that the minutes were published on 20 Aug 2021. Accompanying those minutes are the agenda, a statement from Lord Frost on the meeting and a summary of the UK's new relationship with the EU.   According to Lord Frost,  the meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere and marked an important milestone in the UK's new relationship with the EU as friendly trading partners and sovereign equals.  He added:

"As regards the substance, the UK emphasised the need to continue and deepen our close cooperation on customs and on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and encouraged pragmatism, on both sides, to minimise the barriers to trade being faced. On fisheries, the UK made clear that it will exercise regulatory autonomy within its waters, while continuing to take pragmatic steps to ease the transition to the new arrangements for EU fishermen including on licences. The UK noted the good progress in the area of law enforcement generally, but that further steps were needed before all Member States were able to deliver on the commitments in the Agreement. The UK encouraged swift progress on the UK’s association to Horizon, Euratom and Copernicus. The UK also raised issues faced by touring performers and noted the ongoing work with Member States to try to resolve these issues."

Meetings have also taken place between members of three of the specialized committees which were established by art 8 of the Agreement.   

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Brexit Briefing December 2020

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Jane Lambert

Much to the surprise of many commentators, the UK concluded a Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union on Christmas eve to govern the parties' future relationship from 31 Dec 2020. I discussed it in outline in The Draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: What We Know So Far on 26 Dec 2020. It was a great deal better than nothing but it would not have satisfied anybody who might have been hoping for a licence to undercut manufacturers and farmers on the Continent by abandoning EU product safety, environmental and employment safeguards. Her Majesty's government is, of course, free to do any of those things but if it does it will face tariffs or other countermeasures from the EU.  A lot of people in the UK from fishermen to financial services providers have expressed dismay at the deal.

The agreement required primary legislation for implementation and the 40 clause European Union (Future Relationship) Bill with its 6 schedules amounting to 80 pages cleared all its parliamentary stages in a single day.  The other important piece of primary legislation was the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020.  The provisions to which the EU and parliamentarians of all parties objected which I mentioned in The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill 19 Sept 2020 were dropped.

So now the legislative framework is in place in international and national law.  The terms of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union are set out in the Withdrawal Agreement (Agreement on the withdrawal of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland from the European Union and the European AtomicEnergy Community).   The provisions relating to the transition or implementation period lapsed at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020 but the others remain in force.

These include the continued legal protection of intellectual assets that were protected by EU law such as registered Community designs and EU trade mark by UK intellectual property rights.  The Withdrawal Agreement was ratified and implemented by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 though the legislation amending the Registered Designs Act 1949, the Patents Act 1977, Thw. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994 had already been made in anticipation of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU without agreement. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement contained a number of provisions relating to intellectual property which I discussed in The IP Provisions of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on 30 Dec 2020 but these will not require legislation in the immediate future.

New provisions for the resolution of disputes between the UK and the EU over the interpretation and application of the Withdrawal Agreement came into force at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020 which I discussed in Dispute Resolution under the Withdrawal Agreement  31 Dec 2020.  Some matters will be reserved to the Court of Justice of the European Union notwithstanding the UK's departure from the EU but most will be resolved through consultation and cooperations with arbitration as a last resort.

Finally, the Department for International Trade has reported trade agreements with Canada, Keneffeya, Singapore, Turkey and Vietnam which appear to roll over agreements that those countries have made with the EU in December.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the UK's new trading environment generally should call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

The IP Provisions of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Author Furdur Source Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

In The Draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: What We Know So Far 26 Dec 2020 I described the draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement as follows:

"The draft trade and cooperation agreement is 1,246 pages long and consists of the body and a very large number of annexes. The body is just under 400 pages long and is divided into 7 Parts subdivided into Titles and in some cases further divided into chapters. The remaining pages are the annexes."

I added that the most important part of the draft agreement appeared to be Part Two which governs trade in goods and services. Title V of that Part covers intellectual property. 

In contrast to Title IV of Part Three of the Withdrawal Agreement (Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community) which provides for the continued protection under national law of intellectual assets that are currently protected by EU law, Title V of Part Two of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement will not require immediate changes to national law.  "Intellectual property" is not even mentioned in the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill which was published late last night and which will ratify the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

The quite extensive changes to UK intellectual property legislation which will come into force at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020 were agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement,  Indeed, some of these changes would have come into effect even if the UK had withdrawn from the European Union without a withdrawal agreement.  I have mentioned those changes in previous articles in this publication and in NIPC Law and I shall no doubt do so again,   In the meantime, the best summary of those changes is Intellectual Property after 1 Jan 2021 which is published on the British Intellectual Property Office website.  That article was last updated on 17 Dec 2020.

Title V of Part Two of the EU-UKTrade and Cooperation Agreement consists of 57 articles between page 125 and page 147 of the draft agreement.  The articles in that title are helpfully identified by the initials "IP".They cover the following topics:

• Chapter 1 (arts IP1 to IP6) general provisions
• Chapter 2  (arts IP7 to IP37) standards concerning intellectual property rights
• Section 1 (arts IP7 to IP17) copyright and related rights
• Section 2 (arts IP18 to IP26) trade marks
• Section 3 (arts IP27 to IP31) designs
• Section 4 (arts IP32 to IP33) patents
• Section 5 (arts IP34 to IP IP36) undisclosed information
• Section 6 (art IP37) plant varieties
• Chapter 3 (arts IP38 to IP54) enforcement of intellectual property rights
• Section 1 (arts IP38 to IP39) general obligations
• Section 2 (arts IP40 to IP51) civil and administrative enforcement
• Section 3 (art IP52) civil judicial procedures and remedies of trade secrets
• Section 4 (arts IP53 and IP54) border enforcement
• Chapter 4 (arts IP55 to IP57) other provisions.

The objectives of the title which are set out in art IP1 are as follows:

"(a) facilitate the production, provision and commercialisation of innovative and creative products and services between the Parties by reducing distortions and impediments to such trade, thereby contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive economy; and 

(b) ensure an adequate and effective level of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights."

Art IP2 (1) provides that the title "shall complement and further specify the rights and obligations of each Party under the TRIPS Agreement and other international treaties in the field of intellectual property to which they are parties." 

In general, the title is structured very similarly to TRIPS which is of course annexe to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization to which the UK, the EU and all its member states are party.  That includes the key provisions of the Enforcement and Trade Secrets Directives.  It should be remembered that s.3 (1) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 incorporates direct EU legislation into national law.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or Title V of Part Two of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.  In the meantime, I wish all my readers a happy and prosperous New Year.