Despite the EU and UK parliaments being in recess, there were a lot of important developments for traders and businesses over the last few days.
Firstly, Brussels is inching closer to announcing its ‘Made in Europe’ plan, prompting concern from UK ministers about the possible impact on British companies. More details are emerging about how this could change the trading relationship between the UK and the EU.
Secondly, Westminster looks to have ‘shelved’ its Single Trade Window (STW) plans, with reports that no money has been spent on developing the programme since January 2025. While the government insists that it has not been dropped, experts are raising the question of what the STW will look like if it ever emerges.
The Big Picture: A developing issue for the UK supply chain is the slow shaping of the EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ plan.
Despite the EU’s ambassador to the UK Pedro Serrano telling Global Trade Today that Brussels wasn’t getting into the economic protectionism game – and that it would work with “cherished” partners like the UK – minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has warned of the damage it could have on UK supply lines.
“My concern is that if you had very strict preference requirements, you would risk impacting our deeply integrated supply chains that would create unnecessary barriers to trade in key UK-EU industries and increase costs,” the EU relations minister told a conference in Madrid, as reported by the Guardian.
His ministerial colleagues, business and trade secretary Peter Kyle and trade minister Sir Chris Bryant, are scheduled to visit France to lobby on the proposals.
The plan is set to be formally revealed next week by Brussels. It is expected to target Chinese influence over the EU economy and include requirements on European-based production to access public procurement and subsidies.
Good week/Bad week: It’s been a good week for the UK steel industry, after British Steel secured an eight figure contract to supply products to a Turkish rail project. The company’s commercial director for rail, Craig Harvey, said the contract would allow the Scunthorpe plant to re-start 24/7 operations.
It’s been a bad week for the climate. The US has reportedly forced the International Energy Agency (IEA) to remove climate change from its list of main priorities. Politico reports that US energy secretary, Chris Wright, had threatened to leave the IEA if the Paris-based organisation focused on the environmental crisis. The climate has been dropped from the agency’s list of priorities.
How’s Stat? Monthly tariff payments by midsize firms have tripled since early 2025, according to a new report from JP Morgan Chase.
As US President Donald Trump faces midterm elections later this year amid falling poll numbers, the latest figures show how his tariff programme is impacting SMEs in the states. A ruling on the legality of the programme from the US Supreme Court could arrive soon, although no date has been announced.
Quote of the week: “In light of recent geopolitical events in our current geopolitical context, there are risks that the international financial and monetary system is being used as a political tool.”
Greek finance minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who chairs the meetings of his European colleagues, as EU authorities look to promote the Eurocurrency.
The Week in Customs: The Single Trade Window (STW) has been ‘shelved’, according to media reports.
Although the government says that plans are still in the offing, FT reporting says that no HMRC officials are assigned to work on the STW, no money has been spent on it since January 2025 and the contract for delivery “has been closed”.
Chartered Institute Customs Practice Director Anna Doherty, speaking to BorderLex, said that there was still a need for UK traders to have a STW, but “We don’t know what that window is going to look like.”
“Importers and exporters would love to have a portal into which they can put all data that is required regardless of which government department that information is for, and for the government to then be able to download that information from that single portal.”
Aside from the STW, Doherty gave advice to traders on how to avoid duty underpayments and stay compliant with their responsibilities in this area.
What else we covered:
The UK’s ‘trade triangle’ of strategies is being investigated by a parliamentary group, as MPs ask whether these three plans can finally solve the UK’s regional growth problems.
Global Trade Today’s Africa Trade Digest looked at the continent’s zero tariff exports to China and advances by the African Development Bank in its trade finance support.
The Export Controls Brief offered fresh guidance on the New Sanctions List.
True facts: Dame Antonia Romeo has been appointed as the head of the civil service, becoming the first female leader of Whitehall. The first time a woman led a government department was in 1955, when Dame Evelyn Sharp took over the then-Ministry of Housing and Local Government as permanent secretary.
Dame Sharp held the post until 1966, when she retired, and was given a peerage two years later, becoming Baroness of Hornsey.
Romeo was also formerly the chief civil servant at the then-Department for International Trade, becoming the first female permanent secretary there. The first political leader of a trade occurred in 1997, when Labour MP Margaret Beckett was appointed as President of the Board of Trade and breaking a line of male appointments that went back to the First Lord of Trade in 1672.
