Legal

2019 has been a fairly promising year of growth for some emerging and developing markets, but with continued regulatory scrutiny, correspondent banking relationships continuing to be a cut, and a sluggish growth forecast for 2020, what does this mean for trade in EDE’s?

Speaking at Davos, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid stated that the UK will be going ahead with its proposed Digital Tax. Expected to be in place for April 1st, 2020 the tax is designed to target multinational corporations/ conglomerates with a revenue derived from either from the provision of a social media platform, a search engine or an online market place.

With the growth of major players such as Ant Financial in Asia in 2019, TFG asked Accenture’s European Banking Lead, Cecile André Leruste, on her thoughts and predictions for trade and SCF in 2020, focusing on growth coming out of South Asia.

We heard from Steven Beck, Head of Trade Finance at the Asian Development Bank, giving his musings on 2019, a year of uncertainty in trade, and what 2020 might bring for trade and supply chain in Asia.

Commenting on this evening’s signing of the ‘phase one’ trade deal, TFG spoke to Dr Rebecca Harding, trade economist and CEO of Coriolis Technologies

TFG heard from Charles Bryan, Secretary General of EESPA. The global market is forecast to encompass 550 billion invoices annually. It is expected to quadruple in size by 2035.

TFG’s Nikhil Patel sat down with ITFA Chairman, Sean Edwards, discussing the highs (and lows) of 2019, from a trade, tech and regulatory perspective. We asked ITFA’s view on whether the fireworks of trade wars might slow in 2020, and what’s needed for blockchain to work for trade in 2020.

In January 2019, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on International Trade and Investment produced a brief – “Four Scenarios for the Future of Trade and Investment”, that assessed the rising geopolitical tensions present globally, and offered four potential avenues that the global economy would take in the coming years. TFG Investigates.

TFG spoke to Berne Union’s Secretary General Vinco David about the state of credit insurance following 2019’s uncertainty, and what the priorities are for the trade credit insurance industry in 2020.

The biggest global reduction in sulphur content for marine fuels has now come into force (from the 1st January 2020). Shipping companies will need to axe sulphur emissions by around 85%m and with this in mind, what could these new limits mean for trade, freight forwarding prices and the global economy? TFG investigates.

There is no doubt that the new Incoterms® 2020 are very usable in the context of trade within the Europe/Central Asia land mass and transported by land, just as the 2010 and earlier versions were.

The ICC Uniform Rules for Collections (URC522) Supplement for Electronic Presentation (eURC). On 1 July 2019, the revised internet eRules and guidelines for online trade finance documentary collections came into effect for banks, importers, exporters, and freight forwarders to prepare and present electronic records for documentary collections in lieu of or in conjunction with paper documents.

With the development of more interconnected alternative finance options for businesses and the emergence of open banking in the marketplace, the option of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is seeing a great increase in popularity over the years among its SME audience.

On a rainy morning back in September we hosted a roundtable on collateral management at gunnercooke llp offices. We were joined by our co-host Elena Egorova, Head of Projects, DRUM Risk, an inspection and stock management company. Elena helped us work through an interactive case study based on real events (the infamous worst-case scenario) to track legal issues and practical considerations arising from the storage of commodities.

The European Commission faces a tough challenge when considering its policies regarding competition in the market: It is a fine line between protecting domestic companies that struggle in light of giant companies from abroad and softening antitrust rules that Ms Vestager has to walk as EU competition chief.