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
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 Globalization
The New Globalization: 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...
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...
Media Mention
How Brexit is returning to UK politics
David Henig comments on evolving UK-EU...
Media Mention
How has Brexit changed the UK?
David Henig appears on TRT discussing Brexit and UK...
Media Mention
Britain’s trade honeymoon is over
David Henig comments on UK Trade Policy...
Media Mention
India plays hardball on UK trade deal as Liz Truss scrambles for a win
David Henig comments for Politico on a UK-India...
Article
A new dawn for UK-EU relations?
David Henig writes about next stages of the UK-EU...
Article
Go for growth? It’s not as easy as they think
David Henig writes for Bylines about UK economic...
Article
What do you call Boris Johnson shamelessly bluffing at the poker table with an empty hand? The protocol Bill
David Henig comments in the Irish Times about the Northern Ireland Protocol...
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...
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...