In this session, the UK Trade and Business Commission met to hear from experts what role healthcare might have in future UK trade deals.

Globally the main barriers to trade are no longer tariffs but differing regulations between countries. Exporters have to meet the varying requirements in different countries, which is likely to mean extra costs. However, countries may choose to vary regulations for many good domestic reasons, such as responding to consumer pressures or reduce the cost of domestic production. Finding a balance is difficult for all countries. For the UK, having just left the EU regulatory bloc, it presents a particular challenge.

Science, research, and innovation are increasingly seen as crucial ingredients to a country’s economic performance. They are also at the centre of the response to global challenges as immediate as covid or tackling climate change, and unsurprisingly therefore require international collaboration. There are broad policy challenges involved from attracting and retaining the best researchers, through to seeking commercial exploitation of the innovations. These continue to be hugely important to the UK’s future prosperity.

Questions relating to trade in animal products attract far greater attention than their economic value would suggest. Concerns about human and animal health, the ability of countries to produce their own safe and cost-effective food, and fair competition among others mean Import checks are typically more onerous and tariffs higher. In the case of UK trade relations this has meant concern about reduced exports to the EU or increased imports of lower quality from the US, a potential shortage of vets, and interest in whether a UK-EU veterinary agreement could help.

Globally the food and drink sector is typically most affected by trade barriers, with both the highest levels of tariffs and the most onerous non-tariff barriers (typically sanitary and phytosanitary or SPS measures). It was therefore unsurprising that this sector has been at the centre of stories about the impact of the changes to UK trade from January 1 2021. The change was particularly abrupt for movements from Great Britain to the EU and Northern Ireland, the latter due to the provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol.