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.
New Globalization
Global Trade Today: Five Basic Facts about Global Trade
There is a paradox in the global debate about trade. It has never been easier to trade internationally, but global trade is poorly understood. Consumers can go to a platform like eBay, choose a product from another country, pay and await arrival, often instant for a service. Yet when world leaders debate trade openness and restrictions, they often sound as if nothing had changed in real trade for the past hundred years. The debate is still centred on tariffs, and...
UK Project
Ambition on Unstable Foundations: The UK Trade Policy Readiness Assessment 2020
The UK’s road to an independent trade policy has reached a critical moment. Within the next six months Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) containing long term arrangements and rules could be finalised with the United States and / or European Union, who between them constitute around 65% of UK trade. Talks have also started with Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Our updated Trade Policy Readiness Assessment suggests that the UK government is not fully ready for this...
UK Project
Sweden, UK and the EU: Managing post-Brexit Relations and Defining a new Agenda for European Competitiveness
There is an urgent need to move on from the shock of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, and all the melodrama in the past two years over what form Brexit should take, and focus on building a new relationship between the UK and EU including Member States such as Sweden. Trade and political relationships face change, but there is much that can be done to make sure that negative effects are temporary, and that we find a stable future path. Both the EU and...
UK Project
The UK’s First International Trade Negotiation – Agriculture at the WTO
There are few issues that cause more controversy in international trade policy than agriculture. The EU’s overall agriculture policy, including domestic support, tariffs, and Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs), are an ongoing irritant with trade partners. The UK government has spoken of being more liberal. This is the context for the UK’s first international trade negotiation since the Brexit vote, to set our future WTO schedules, including calculating our TRQs....
Media Mention
Trump’s Defeat Weakens Boris Johnson in Urgent Brexit Talks
David Henig comments in the New York Times on how the US election affects UK-EU...
Media Mention
Is UK’s new trade deal with Japan better than the EU’s one?
David Henig comments on the UK-Japan trade deal...
Media Mention
Chi è il potente consigliere di Boris Johnson che odia l’Europa e vuole zittire la Bbc
David Henig comments in L'Espresso on relations between UK and the...
Media Mention
Japan trade accord becomes post-Brexit priority for UK
David Henig comments UK post-Brexit FTA priorities for the Financial...
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...
Article
The Brexit deal can be improved
David Henig suggests a number of possible improvements to the Brexit deal in an article originally published by the...
Article
That brand new Tory plan for Brexit? Here’s why it’s dead in the water
David Henig writes an Op-ed analysing the proposed 'Malthouse compromise' on...
Article
Why trade deficits are not a bad thing
David Henig writes an Op-ed on why we should not be concerned about trade...
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...