Press
Here's how Germany could boost its economy, if it wants to act
18 August 2019
Bloomberg
With its infrastructure in poor shape, Germany could think big and commit to higher investment for the next 15 to 20 years, according Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in Berlin. Germany is ranked highly in the overall global competitiveness index, but falls short in areas like road quality and internet connectivity.
Costly tariff spat masks deeper trade problems
18 August 2019
The Wall Street Journal
Nor do tariffs necessarily explain patterns of global trade. Consider American automobiles, whose relative unpopularity in Europe owes more to narrow streets than EU import duties, said Sam Lowe, a trade-policy expert at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank focused on EU affairs.
Dogma and complacency put the German economy at risk
16 August 2019
Financial Times
A lack of political ambition, reform and investment when times were good have hobbled the country.
Trump envoy's cheap Brexit promises
14 August 2019
Politico
“What Bolton is proposing is not realistic," said Sam Lowe from the Centre for European Reform. "Why would Congress sign off on anything that doesn’t have agriculture included?”"All Congress cares about is agriculture and dismantling the EU’s regulatory approach to food and chemicals,” Lowe argued. Any deal that falls short of that would not be ratified, regardless of Bolton's assurances.
The US-UK post-Brexit trade deal is too good to be true
13 August 2019
Yahoo Finance
In fact, Centre for European Reform’s trade expert Sam Lowe pointed out that "the reason for this is that the EU actually offered this approach to the US as a means of getting away from the trade war by saying 'let’s find a solution'.”
BBC Radio 4 - Today programme: US-UK trade deal: Too good to be true?
13 August 2019
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform discussed US-UK trade deals, and if deals could be done sector by sector (from 06.48am).
BBC News: Post-Brexit trade deals
13 August 2019
“One of the possibilities...is perhaps a deal by which Trump says to the UK I'll exclude you from my trade war tariffs if you support us on Huawei, or Iran, or China – this would technically be a quick deal if not a fully-fledged free trade agreement”, Sam Lowe, a...
Sky News: Brexit trade
13 August 2019
John Bolton is not a trade envoy–his concerns are Iran, China, Huawei “He is using the carrot of a potential free trade agreement with the US -something the UK and Brexit supporters have wanted for a while- as a means of applying pressure to the UK” Sam Lowe, a senior...
Radio 2 - Jeremy Vine: Facebook Ads and Trade Deals
13 August 2019
“The UK does need to decide: if it just wants to throw all its eggs into one basket with the US when at this moment in time the person running the US isn’t maybe the stable genius that he likes to think he is?” Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform told Jeremy Vine (from 13:36).
BBC World News: Post-Brexit trade deals
13 August 2019
“The US is a strong operator in trade agreements – it tends to get what it wants by being tough and pursuing its own interests, and it will make use of the fact that Britain post-Brexit will be very much in bad need of a trade deal" Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform tells BBC World.
Brexit: US promises fast‑track trade deals for Britain and backs no‑deal
13 August 2019
The Times
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said: “The EU offered just this sort of deal to the US as a way of de-escalating the trade war and the US turned it down. That makes me sceptical that doing these sort of sector-by-sector deals is politically possible in America."
US-UK trade deal: Too good to be true?
13 August 2019
BBC News
The UK is "first in line" for a trade deal with the US, President Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton has said. And deals could be reached on a sector by sector basis.However, Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, is sceptical, particularly if the Trump administration proposed an agreement that focused on industrial goods and excluded agriculture to begin with.
Trump accused of ‘dangling a carrot’ with trade deals
13 August 2019
Evening Standard
Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “It could be seen as him dangling a carrot in front of us when actually he just wants our support in other areas.”
Investieren, investieren, investieren
12 August 2019
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Es ist höchste Zeit für einen Kurswechsel in der deutschen Wirtschaftspolitik, fordern drei Ökonomen in einem Gastbeitrag für die SZ. Der Staat müsse viel Geld in die Hand nehmen.
Germany debates loosening purse strings to fund climate measures
11 August 2019
Financial Times
“From an international perspective it has long been incomprehensible that a country as fiscally sound and economically strong as Germany is not using the unique opportunity of low interest rates to invest in its future growth,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economic at the Centre for European Reform.
A no-deal Brexit is less inevitable than it looks
09 August 2019
Prospect
Boris Johnson says he won’t talk to the EU unless it agrees to scrap the Irish backstop.
America has the upper hand in a trade deal with Britain
09 August 2019
The Atlantic
Paradoxically, though, “some of the things [the US is] asking for make a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland more probable,” Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London, told me.
A no-deal Brexit won’t be a clean break: This nightmare will go on for ever
09 August 2019
The Guardian
“The economic disruption will still be there,” says Sam Lowe, trade analyst at the Centre for European Reform. “It just might not be visible.”
No-deal Brexit spells trouble for British expats in Europe
08 August 2019
The Telegraph
If you’re heading over to the continent for your holidays (or there already) and find yourself wincing at the Brexit-weakened exchange rate as you cough up for your cerveza, please spare a thought for the 1.3 million Britons who live in the EU.
Boris Johnson eyes election in 'days after' Brexit
08 August 2019
Financial Times
Sam Lowe, a senior Brexit research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said that while the “full consequences of no-deal will take a while to settle in”, he predicted that “issues will begin to emerge from day one”. He added: “Holding a general election days after seems remarkably reckless in that the management of no-deal will require a focused government committed to the task at hand, with ministers ready to take decisions, not half the cabinet on a battle bus in Devon and the civil service constrained by purdah.”