Brexit and the Battle of the Doner Kebabs
On 28th June 2024, The Times reported on the battle of the doner kebabs between Germany and Turkey.
A form of doner kebab made with veal is one Germany’s national dishes, probably developed in the first instance by Turkish immigrants to Germany. The Turkish version is made with beef or lamb.
According to The Times report, the International Doner Federation based in Istanbul has applied via the Turkish Government to the EU Commission asking the Commission to stipulate a detailed set of regulatory standards attaching to anything labelled as doner kebab and which would reflect only the Turkish version of the dish. In addition to the meat being beef or lamb rather than veal, the meat would ( in the Turkish way) have to be cut into slices between 3mm and 5mm thick, marinated for at least ten hours with particular quantities of salt, pepper, thyme, chopped onion and yoghurt or milk – this is not particularly how the Germans make doner kebab and if the new standards were to be adopted the Germans would have to comply or call their doner kebabs something else.
The Germans are not happy about this and are fighting the Turks’ application to the EU Commission. It is possible that they feel that the Turks are trying to skewer them.
The Turks seem to be looking for the same sort of protection as the EU has reportedly accorded to mozzarella cheese and parma ham. (In this regard, it is possible that the Turks are concerned by confusions that have arisen between the UK with its love of chicken tikka marsala and India with its devotion to chicken tikka.)
Even The Times has felt itself forced to comment on this dispute and in an editorial on the day of its report , entitled “Doner und Blitzen”, has impliedly called for restraint because “As any Englishman well knows, intemperate bickering over a kebab is often a recipe for trouble”.
Let us see what happens!
Brexit and a New UK Government
What does the future hold for the UK following Labour’s convincing victory in the UK General Election on 4th July 2024? Was it Independence Day for the United Kingdom?
It is early days but the new Labour Government has made it clear that the UK will not seek to rejoin the EU any time soon ( or, indeed, according to new UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer MP, in his lifetime!).
Labour’s main agenda for the UK economy appears to be push for growth .
Former Labour Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, writing in The Sunday Times on 7th July 2024, about would have been his priorities for government , argues that there are things that can be done to kickstart economic growth, “in particular reforming the hopelessly slow and bureaucratic planning system, both infrastructure and housing, and fixing the worst aspects of the post- Brexit trade deal”.
Sir Tony is very clear, however, that “the only game-changer is the full embrace of the potential of technology, especially the new developments in artificial intelligence (AI)”.
Interesting times!
Brexit and the Arbitration
On 17th July 2024, the King’s Speech and accompanying background briefing notes announced an Arbitration Bill, implementing recommendations from a 2022 Law Commission review of Arbitration Law, which would “support more efficient dispute resolution, attract international legal business, and promote UK economic growth”.
According to the relevant background briefing note, the key reforms proposed by the Bill are:-
- Clarifying the law applicable to arbitration agreements that do not arise from investor-state agreements;
- Codifying a duty on arbitrators to disclose circumstances that might give rise to justifiable doubts about their impartiality;
- Strengthening arbitrator immunity against liability for resignations and applications for removal;
- Empowering arbitrators to make awards on a summary basis on issues that have no real prospect of success;
- Empowering courts to make orders in support of emergency arbitrators; and
- Revising the framework for challenges where the challenge alleges that the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction.
The Bill, when enacted, would apply in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Interestingly, the relevant background briefing note comments that the current Arbitration Act 1996 needs to be modernised in order to continue attracting international legal business. Apparently, other acknowledged arbitration jurisdictions have updated their arbitration legislation recently, namely, Singapore in 2023, Hong Kong in 2022, and Sweden and Dubai in 2018. Notably, in 2021, Singapore reportedly ranked equal first with London as the globally preferred choice for international arbitration.
The Bill should not be contentious between the UK Government and the Official Opposition because the previous Conservative Government had proposed to enact similar legislation before that was overtaken by the UK General Election 2024 .
Modernising times!
Brexit and Norway
Norway is outside the EU but, like the UK, has land and maritime borders with the EU . Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) ( ie an extended part of the EU single market) but outside the EU customs union, whereas the UK is outside both the single market and the customs union.
The two countries have been friends and rivals over many centuries as well as active trade and investment partners and it may be instructive to look at recent trade and investment statistics between them.
On 20th June 2024,the UK Government’s Department for Business & Trade (DBT) published one of its regular factsheets on the subject, showing that total trade in goods and services ( exports plus imports) between the UK and Norway was £39.6 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q4 ( Quarter 4) 2023, a decrease of 28% or £15.4 billion in current prices from the four quarters to the end of Q4 2022.Of this £39.6 billion:
- Total UK exports to Norway amounted to £9.3 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2023 ( an increase of 13.2% or £1.1 billion in current prices, compared to the four quarters to the end of Q4 2022);and
- Total UK imports from Norway amounted to £30.2 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2023 ( a decrease of 35.2% or £16.4 billion in current prices, compared to the four quarters to the end of Q4 2022).
According to the DBT factsheet , Norway was the UK’s 11th largest trading partner in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2023, accounting for 2.2% of total UK trade.
The factsheet also showed that, in 2021, the outward stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the UK in Norway was £6.6 billion accounting for 0.4% of the total UK outward FDI stock and that, in the same year, the inward stock of FDI in the UK from Norway was £6.1 billion accounting for 0.3% of the total UK inward FDI stock.
The main UK imports from Norway as shown in the factsheet are crude oil and gas and the decline in comparative imports from Norway to the UK from one year to the next as reflected in the above -mentioned DBT factsheet figures has been quite dramatic.
It will be interesting to see how the economic future continues to unfold between the two countries in the post-Brexit era.
