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 Globalisation
David Henig is Director of the UK Trade Policy Project. A leading authority on the development of UK Trade Policy post Brexit, he places this in the context of developments in EU and global trade policy on which he also researches and writes.
David joined ECIPE in 2018 having worked on trade and investment issues for the UK Government for a number of years, in particular engaging extensively on US-EU talks around the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, on global issues around the US and China, and latterly helping to establish a UK trade policy capability after the 2016 Brexit referendum. He also writes a regular column for the online trade policy professionals news service Borderlex, advises a Parliamentary committee and the UK Trade and Business Commission, and appears regularly in media and at events to discuss latest developments. During the most intense phases of Brexit, he established with a number of other UK specialists a network of expertise under the UK Trade Forum banner.
Prior to working in Government, David worked in consulting and business development, having graduated from Oxford University. Collectively all of this experience is brought together in the project examining and evaluating the UK’s performance in preparing for and delivering effective trade policy.
ECIPE Policy Briefs
Negotiating Uncertainty in UK-EU Relations: Past, Present, and Future
Ten key points to negotiating the UK-EU relationship Europe has been weakened by difficult UK-EU relations at a time of international challenge. Eight years after the Brexit referendum a new UK government and European Commission provides a good opportunity to reset approaches and put obstructions aside. Too big for either side to ignore, this will always be an important, time-consuming, and slightly chaotic relationship – which thus needs a much firmer footing...
ECIPE Policy Briefs
Building a Mature UK Trade Policy
Global Britain has not delivered according to the hopes expressed by supporters of leaving the EU. Trade with the rest of the world has not grown to make up for leaving a bloc with seamless trade, early Free Trade Agreements with Australia and New Zealand are of minor economic significance, and it is hard to discern much of a strategy beyond completing a few more similar deals. Meanwhile the world of trade policy is transformed since 2016, negatively. The US...
New Globalisation
The New Globalisation: SMEs and International Trade – The Supply Chain is as Important as Direct Exports
The disproportionately small share of exports from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is a cause of concern in modern trade policy. For developed countries, they typically account for over 95% of all businesses, two-thirds of the labour force, yet less than 50% of economic activity, and under a third of total export value. There is a compelling global narrative which argues we are missing a major economic opportunity. Conventional policy responses have been to...
UK Project
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...
Media Mention
EU fears own goal on youth mobility as Starmer pushes for softer Brexit
David Henig emphasises the struggle to design a coherent and cohesive approach to these negotiations within the UK itself for The i...
Media Mention
Project Access shaping the future of education at the London Summit 2024
David Henig's participation at the the third edition of the Project Access Summit is highlighted by Charity...
Media Mention
Brexit is back with a bang at Labour conference, but who will blink first?
David Henig's thoughts during the 2024 Labour Party Conference are highlighted by The i...
Media Mention
Stagflation piece of polycrisis has stubbornly failed to materialise
David Henig's study "Negotiating Uncertainty in UK-EU Relations: Past, Present, and Future" is featured in Alan Beattie's Trade Secrets for the...
Article
Perspectives: Fish cake-ism casts shadow over EU-UK reset
David Henig looks into the potential implications of fisheries issues in the EU-UK reset in his Perspectives column for...
Article
Why the EU should embrace a UK relationship reset
David Henig writes his column for Encompass based on his paper "Negotiating Uncertainty in UK-EU Relations: Past, Present, and...
Article
Too big to ignore, too unstable to support broader aims – the UK-EU relationship must change
David Henig writes a piece based on his paper "Negotiating Uncertainty in UK-EU Relations: Past, Present, and Future" for the UK Trade Policy...
Article
Perspectives: Firmer ground needed for trade policy towards China
David Henig writes about China's rise in international trade for...
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
Towards a Reset in EU-UK Relations
David Henig discusses EU-UK relations in an episode of the AIG Global Trade...
Speech or Presentation
Small but important steps in EU-UK relations
David Henig's thoughts on the Keir Starmer - Ursula von der Leyen meeting are highlighted in a piece by Peter Foster in the Financial...
Speech or Presentation
UK/EU – A Closer Disunion?
David Henig brings out the possibilities to improve EU-UK ties in the latest episode of The Why? Curve...
Speech or Presentation
After the Election, Where Now for the EU and Brexit Britain? (Question Session)
David Henig's Q&A session for North Herts for Europe where he responded to doubts on the future of EU-UK...