Trade and market access

We enable our clients to navigate an increasingly complex global trading environment, helping them identify risks and opportunities to achieve commercial objectives.

Our analysis and advice enables clients to respond to risks and opportunities, make informed decisions, and engage effectively with governments.

Geopolitical tensions have created a turbulent and fragmented environment for global trade. Trade policy weaponisation, disruptions to supply chains, and growing digital protectionism have created a challenging operating environment for companies moving goods, services, data, and people globally.

We help clients to address a range of challenges including the emerging challenge of new US tariffs, trade disputes, subsidies, UK trade policy, EU strategic autonomy, digital trade, trade and financial services, border modernisation, trade and sustainability,
and ongoing supply chain and regulatory risk.

How we help clients

We help businesses across all sectors, geographies and sizes stay abreast of ongoing developments.

Identifying and respond to change. Our scenario analysis helps you understand what is coming down the line and build an appropriate business response.

Deep insight into trade policy and supply chain risk.

Commercial focus: our bespoke analysis will account for your businesses’ unique supply chains and target markets – helping create new opportunities and manage risks.

Formulating trade policy positions that are supported by the
arguments and evidence that will maximise your chance of achieving policy change.

Our offer

Flint's trade and market access practice enables our clients to navigate the global trading environment, overcome barriers to trade, enter new markets, and achieve their commercial objectives.

Policy and political analysis

Horizon scanning

Cross sectoral

Trade negotiations

We help businesses anticipate, interpret and respond to trade
developments in UK, US, EU and Asia-Pacific policy and politics.

We apply our analysis to the specific challenges faced by our
clients, helping them identify and map risks and opportunities, make informed decisions and engage effectively with governments.

We have expertise in all aspects of international trade including
tariffs and rules of origin, subsidies & disputes, digital, tech,
financial services, regulation and other services.

We help our clients build credible and evidence backed arguments that will help shape the thinking and negotiating position of governments on trade issues.

Our approach

We enable our clients to navigate this increasingly complex global trading environment, overcome regulatory and political barriers to trade, enter new markets and achieve their commercial objectives.

Removing trade barriers

We help clients address firm-specific trade and regulatory barriers by helping to design firms’ through policy offers.

Political and regulatory due diligence

We work with firms and investors to map trade, supply chain and
labour market exposure to political, environmental and regulatory
change, identify business model and investor risks and develop
mitigation strategies.

Impact of geopolitical risk

We advise investors on the possible second and third- order trade impacts of geopolitical shocks to help them stress test their assumptions and identify new commercial opportunities.

Strategic counsel and intelligence

We help firms develop and structure their strategic approach to government engagement with regard to UK and EU trade policy agendas.

Sectors where we can help

We serve a range of clients operating in many sectors where public policy and regulation is a significant factor in planning and strategic decision-making. We offer external challenge, additional bandwidth and practical support. As a global firm, we draw on and integrate the experience of our teams across the word.

Defence

Energy

Financial services

Food, drink and farming

Health and life sciences

Manufacturing and industry

Media, entertainment and sport

Technology

Telecommunications

Transport

Water

We work with companies and investors in the defence sector, providing strategic advice on the political and policy environment. We support defence firms of all sizes across multiple technology segments and jurisdictions to navigate complex policy, geopolitical and regulatory issues. We also help investors understand defence policy and regulatory impacts which affect their portfolios, including by offering deep expertise of defence policy and related policy areas, providing insights, and conducting company and market due diligence.

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We support companies at the heart of the energy transition to navigate the rapidly changing policy and regulatory environment that impacts investment and commercial plans.

Our specialist team comes from the most senior levels of energy regulation and policy. We use our unique insight and understanding of how policy and regulation will evolve to advise generators, network companies, retailers, and investors on how to positively shape the policy debate and manage regulatory risk.

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We help financial services institutions, from established players to growing fintechs, navigate an ever-more complex regulatory and policy landscape and understand the broader political context in which these events take place.

Our team brings together expertise from senior levels of UK, European and Asian financial institutions, regulators and government, to provide advice and insight across the financial services landscape.

We combine deep technical knowledge with first-hand experience of policy and regulatory decision-making, to help businesses and investors anticipate and manage developments and take strategic decisions to achieve successful commercial outcomes.

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We help food, drink and farming clients navigate the changing regulatory and policy landscape to achieve their commercial goals.

The food, drink and farming policy and regulatory environment is continuously evolving affecting businesses that operate in the UK, EU and beyond.

Companies need to identify and mitigate potential risks and ensure they capitalise on opportunities in the developing nutritional and agricultural landscape.

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Changes in health policy and regulation pose both commercial opportunities and risks.

We help major corporates, investors and portfolio companies anticipate, interpret and respond to opportunities from changes in health policy, regulation and politics to deliver improved commercial outcomes. Our team brings together expertise from senior levels of UK and European ministries, public health bodies, competition authorities, and regulators.

What differentiates us is our cross-disciplinary expertise that provides us with a sophisticated understanding of the interdependencies of health and care policy with the wider political system; a forensic focus on driving commercial outcomes, and a proven track record in the sector.

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We help advanced manufacturers to navigate a fast moving regulatory and policy landscape, to anticipate and manage domestic and geopolitical risk, and to take advantage of opportunities, for example in new technologies, trade, investment.

We apply our extensive experience working in industrial policy within government, and serving clients across many advanced manufacturing segments (such as auto, aero, and energy) to help our clients anticipate, interpret and respond to political, policy and regulatory developments relevant to their commercial aims. We work with them to ensure their strategies, priorities and activities take account of these external changes, and we help businesses to bring together the arguments and evidence they can use to shape debate in the political and policy sphere.

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We work with major players in the media, sports and entertainment sectors to provide strategic advice at a time where policy and regulation is seeking to adapt to rapid developments in technology and societal expectations.

We help major companies and institutions deliver improved commercial outcomes by anticipating, interpreting and responding to opportunities and risks created by change in policy, regulation and politics.

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We work with companies and investors in the technology sector, supporting their businesses with strategic advice on political and policy change.

We provide political and policy advice to some of the largest operators in the technology industry, including clients in artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, fintech, new media and communications.

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We help telecommunications providers and investors navigate a complex and ever-changing competition, policy and regulatory landscape drawing on our deep sector knowledge and extensive senior level industry experience.

Our team brings together a unique mix of senior expertise from UK and European telecoms regulators and government,
and extensive experience of advising the world’s leading telecoms operators to provide advice and insight across the telecommunications regulatory and competition landscape.

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We help companies, investors, and sector bodies navigate fast-changing and complex transport policy and regulation.

We advise transport clients on managing risks and seizing opportunity from structural sector reform, decarbonisation, transport funding and finances, and regulation of new modes of transport. Our team has worked within transport authorities, at the highest levels of politics and policy, and at regulators. We advise organisations in the sector on making their voice heard, by crafting commercially informed policy propositions that also benefit consumers and the Exchequer.

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We help companies, investors, and sector bodies navigate fast-changing and complex transport policy and regulation.

We advise regulated water companies and major institutional investors on their strategic and investment decisions. Our team brings together experts from regulators, government and industry; we draw on our deep understanding of how the sector is run, regulated and governed, as well as the wider political context.

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