David Henig
Email: david.henig@ecipe.org
Mobile: +44 79 50 099 059
Areas of Expertise: European Union EU Single Market EU Trade Agreements North-America Services WTO and Globalization

David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project. A leading expert on the development of UK Trade Policy post Brexit, in 2017 he co-founded the UK Trade Forum, which brings together UK trade policy experts to debate and analyse these issues.
He joined ECIPE in 2018 having worked on trade and investment issues for the UK Government for a number of years. He was heavily engaged on TTIP throughout the three and a half years of negotiations, working with both sets of negotiators to develop ways forward particularly on regulatory coherence, TBT, and sustainable development. He also travelled extensively through the EU making the case for TTIP with Member State Governments and stakeholders. After the UK referendum vote he helped establish the new Department for International Trade, engaging in many of the UK’s first working groups with non-EU countries, and setting out options for engagement with the US. Prior to TTIP he was involved with investment policy, the OECD and international rules based system, and business policy towards China.
David started his career before Government in consulting and business development, having graduated from Oxford University. He is bringing all of this experience together in a project examining and evaluating the UK’s performance in preparing for and delivering effective trade policy.
ECIPE Policy Briefs
Time for Fresh Thinking on Northern Ireland and Brexit
The Good Friday / Belfast Agreement became, with considerable efforts over several years from so many involved, a broadly accepted if never fully stable political framework for Northern Ireland. A year after implementation, the prospect of the Northern Ireland Protocol delivering similar results is diminishing. Instead, there is a risk it entrenches divisions in which all sides believe others, not themselves, must be the ones to compromise most. Such divisions...
New Globalization
Prosperity and Resilience: Diverse Production and Comparative Advantage in Modern Economies
A common version of trade theory suggests that countries will specialise in a limited number of products. Using the example of David Ricardo from 1817, England specialises in cloth and Portugal in producing wine – and then they trade with each other to mutual benefit. However, this is a crude version of comparative advantage that routinely leads to political concerns about trade. Today the prime concern is that Europe and other developed countries have become...
ECIPE Policy Briefs
The Future of EU Leadership in the Car Industry: Still Global
Automotive is Europe’s key export industry, an important contributor to the EU economy, from balance of payments to employment, and a manufacturing base to global and European brands; Balancing the EU’s climate ambitions (and its implied economic transformation) with a successful EU car industry is therefore crucially important. The car industry is at the forefront of new initiatives to tackle the climate emergency, shaped by these new regulations its products...
New Globalization
Services Trade Needs to be Taken as Seriously as Goods Trade
Services constitute at least a quarter of total trade. Between 2009 and 2019 global services trade increased by nearly 50%, compared to 18% for goods trade. Yet it is rarely taken as seriously as goods in global trade policy discourse. This is a problem when making the case for...
Media Mention
Northern Ireland vote: protocol divides parties with Sinn Fein saying it ‘mitigates against Brexit’
David Henig comments on the Northern Ireland elections and implications for the protocol negotiated between UK and...
Media Mention
Boris Johnson seeks to forge closer economic ties with China
David Henig comments in the FT on plans to restart the UK-China trade...
Media Mention
In London Shops, Greek Cheese, Sicilian Citrus and British Headaches
David Henig comments in the New York Times on the effects of barriers to UK-EU...
Media Mention
How Brexit and the pandemic changed UK trade in 4 charts
David Henig comments on UK trade after...
Article
The Token Effort that is Levelling Up
David Henig writes for Bylines on the UK's levelling up agenda with reference to the regional and global...
Article
Desire for US trade deal only way to make sense of Johnson’s stance on protocol
David Henig writes for the Irish Times on how the UK government is prioritising a US trade deal over resolving difficulties with the Northern Ireland...
Article
After Brexit and Covid, services will be just as vital as manufacturing
David Henig questions the emphasis on bringing back manufacturing in developed countries such as the UK, and proposes the UK makes more effort to...
Article
What’s in the new EU-UK trade deal? Brexperts explain
Emily Rees and David Henig discuss the EU-UK trade deal in Trade Talks...
Book or Paper
Northern Ireland’s Triple Treaty Trade Ambiguity
David Henig writes for the Centre for Cross Border Studies on the ambiguity around Northern Ireland's future trade...
Speech or Presentation
Economists on impact of no-deal Brexit
David Henig and Shanker Singham discuss the latter's proposals for Brexit on Channel 4...