Press

Breaking with the EU may slow Britain’s economic growth in coming years, said Sam Lowe, a researcher at the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank. “But with the majority he has he can probably afford some economic pain,” he said, while adding that a hit to the economy would make it harder to for Mr. Johnson to satisfy his new cohort of working-class supporters.

As the redoubtable Sam “Big Sam” Lowe of the Centre for European Reform points out, an EU-UK bilateral negotiated by end-2020 won’t look much different for most companies than a no-deal Brexit. Trade Secrets is 1-0 up, and the game’s into self-inflicted injury time.

These agreements are "largely low-hanging fruits strategically," Khrystyna Parandii, a fellow at the London-based Centre for European Reform, said in a tweet. ...But she added that they have "important humanitarian implications" - something Zelenskiy had stressed in comments before the talks on a war that has killed more than 13,000 people, displaced millions, and left many remaining residents of the war-torn areas living in dire conditions.

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, said: “We are talking about a big bureaucratic exercise here.” He said something similar to the transition period would have to continue while new systems were put in place.“While it may be possible to have inked a free trade agreement by the end of the year, you would still have to implement it,” he said. “That would require an extension of the status quo, otherwise there would be chaos.”

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, adds: “The US is no longer the benevolent hegemon of the rules-based system – it's now actively trying to disrupt it and return to a period when all that mattered was size.”

Sie sollten allerdings darauf bestehen, dass die Wiederherstellung der "Souveränität und territorialen Integrität der Ukraine" ein Ziel bleibe, schreibt Khrystyna Parandii in einer Analyse für die Denkfabrik CER (Centre for European Reform), die ihren Hauptsitz in London hat. Sie argumentiert, dass das beste Ergebnis der Zusammenkunft in Paris wäre, wenn sich die Parteien auf einen umfassenden Vertrag einigen könnten, der auf dem Minsker Abkommen basiert und zentrale Fragen wie die Entwaffnung paramilitärischer Gruppen regeln würde.

Yet Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform, another think-tank, says the sole practical option in such a short time would be a bare-bones deal that covered goods trade alone. Such a deal might avoid the need for parliamentary ratification. But it would do nothing for services, which make up 80% of Britain’s economy and half its trade. It would not cover security, data and much else.