The UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) launches a new podcast series today aiming to enhance understanding of key trade issues that are shaping the world.

‘Trade Bites', which will discuss all things trade policy including Brexit, Trade Wars, and the World Trade System, will initially run over eight episodes from February 13 to March 31.

Hosted by Chris Horseman, Deputy Editor of the Trade Policy News Service – Borderlex and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the podcast series aims to provide a cultural artefact on trade policy at a critical point not just for the UK, but for the world.

Covering trade topics as diverse as the ‘Special Relationship’ with the EU and what it means for US/UK trade prospects to UK, Irish and EU trade post-Brexit, the series will aim to stimulate debate at a moment in time when the decisions made in this arena could have profound implications.

This podcast comes at a pivotal time for trade policy. With the UK having left the EU on 31 January, it has until the end of 2020 to strike a new trade deal with the EU before the current transition period comes to an end in December. We will ask what this will mean for future trade not only in Europe, but also with various other trading partners with which the UK may seek to negotiate its own trade deals.  

Furthermore, the US-China trade war has hit domestic markets and reverberated across the global economy, while at the same time the governing body for world trade, the World Trade Organisation, is facing a crisis in its system for resolving disputes between members.

All this comes as the world faces huge challenges in terms of ever-increasing inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, all of which require urgent, collaborative action.

Professor L Alan Winters, Director of UKTPO said: “Trade Bites is intended to inform and entertain the public in the area of international trade policy and so help the development of sound and constructive policy position. Policy impinges mainly on business and, as part of the University of Sussex Business School, we will be particularly interested in how the new trade environment – an independent UK policy and the worldwide trading tensions - affects business and what business needs to know to adapt to it in the 2020s.”

Recorded and produced by CMP STUDIOS LTD, who’ve previously worked with the likes of Warner Brothers and the BBC, each episode will feature a number of special guests who’ll hope to shape and inform knowledge of trade policy issues. In addition, the series aims to enhance the ability of different sections of society and industry to make informed decisions which could positively affect outcomes in trade policy.

The first episode is now live via Soundcloud

It can also be found via the UKTPO website