UK makes first appointments to post-Brexit trade regulator

The new chair is to be Sir David Wright, the UK's former ambassador to Japan and Korea and former British Trade International chief executive. The new chief executive is to be current Electoral Commission chief executive Claire Bassett. They will take up their posts in the coming months and will work to establish the TRA before the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019.

Guy Lougher, trade and Brexit expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the appointments were an important preliminary step towards establishing an effective independent UK trade remedies regime. However, he said that Wright and Bassett had a considerable amount of work ahead of them in the months leading up to Brexit.

"UK producers currently benefitting from EU anti-dumping duties will find those EU duties cease to apply on Brexit," he said. "If the UK government has not put in place a new trade remedies regime to replicate the EU anti-dumping duties, then immediately on Brexit occurring UK producers could be exposed to below cost imports of goods."

"If the UK's trade remedies regime is to be compliant with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, then the UK cannot simply try to 'grandfather' en masse the EU's existing measures. To be WTO compliant, the UK will instead need to conduct its own investigations into suspected dumping, and will need to follow an objective due process before adopting anti-dumping duties against imports. That will all take time. So, there is genuine time pressure on the TRA to be operational as soon as possible, if it is to be able to conduct appropriate investigations prior to adopting anti-dumping duties before Brexit takes effect," he said.

The UK's Trade Bill, which is currently before the House of Lords, contains the powers to set up a UK body responsible for investigating claims of 'dumping' below-cost imports from non-EU countries on the UK market and other harmful or unfair trading practices. The TRA will be based in Reading, and will investigate these claims before proposing measures to address any injury suffered by UK industry to the international trade secretary, currently Liam Fox.

The Trade Bill also contains provisions allowing a post-Brexit UK to transition between existing EU trade agreements with third countries and its own arrangements, and to allow for independent UK access to international government contracts.

In a report published in May, the House of Commons international trade committee warned that the UK's TRA and wider trade policy plans to date were lacking in detail, particularly given the time constraints. In particular, it sought reassurance from the government about whether the UK was legally able to 'grandfather' existing EU trade defence mechanisms into UK law without conducting its own independent investigations.

"Failure to resolve this issue could result in either the TRA undertaking extensive, unnecessary work or the UK being subject to dispute settlement proceedings at the WTO," the committee warned at the time.

Commenting on the appointments, Fox said that it "is in our national interest to ensure [the TRA] is set up and appropriately staffed now in the case of no deal".

"I am delighted to welcome Sir David and Claire as chair and chief executive designates to the TRA, which will take the reins on protecting British industry as we leave the European Union," he said. "I have the utmost confidence in their vast experience and I am certain they will do an excellent job in supporting UK businesses, ensuring that our trade with the world remains fair as well as free."