The future UK-US trading relationship: Creating a transatlantic digital market in services

Our latest report, 'The future UK-US trading relationship: Creating a transatlantic digital market in services', created with support from EY, determined expanding UK-US data exchange arrangements, which could be in-part achieved outside and ahead of a broader free trade agreement, would promote innovation, consumer choice and regulatory oversight in both countries.

Personal data exchange between the UK and the US is currently covered by the EU-US Privacy Shield, but Brexit will require the UK and US to revisit their current arrangement. This could present an opportunity for the UK and the US to expand the coverage of any revised agreement, allowing industries that are not included in the EU mechanism, such as financial and professional services, to be covered for the first time.

As well as expansion, providing continuity for the existing data exchange arrangements is also important in the short-term to give US firms certainty that they can continue to transfer UK data within their organisation, and give UK firms confidence that data transfers to the US would be compliant with UK data protection principles.