Max Mendez-Parra (Senior Research Fellow, ODI) and Dirk Willem te Velde (Principal Research Fellow, ODI)
8 January 2021
A number of critical trade issues and trade policy events will make 2021 a significant year for trade policy-making, in the UK and globally. Decisions made this year will affect many lives in years to come, including in the poorest economies.
Several trade issues are currently right at the front of policy-making, including a trade-based recovery from Covid-19, digital trade and e-commerce, trade and the climate, a post-Brexit trade policy and Aid for Trade.
In 2021, the UK will make a number of decisions, for example about its own trade policy or trade preference scheme, and make commitments at international fora such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC/COP), the G7/G20 and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
This note reviews key trade issues and international events to map out an ambitious trade for development policy agenda that goes beyond the trade continuity the UK was seeking post-Brexit.
Photo: A trading port in Tunisia. Dana Smillie / World Bank. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0