Brexit HoL EU Services Sub-Committee report on trade in services On 24 March, the HoL European Union Committee published a new report on UK-EU trade in services. The report concludes that despite the agreement of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), the UK and EU still have work to do in overcoming the significant challenges that remain for trade in services. The report focuses on the implications on sectors including: (i) financial services, the TCA does not include substantive provisions on financial services, and delays to key decisions about the future relationship, particularly on equivalence, mean that the sector is still in a period of uncertainty. The UK’s exit from the passporting regime has led to the movement of some activity to the EU and firms facing the challenges involved in navigating different market access requirements in each Member State. The Committee is concerned that over time this may lead to a big shift of people and assets out of the UK. The Committee recognises that the UK and the EU will seek to change their regulatory regimes where it is in either party’s interests, but calls on the Government not to disregard the value of a close UK-EU relationship in financial services; (ii) professional and business services - the proliferation of national reservations in the TCA means that UK professional and business services providers face a patchwork of complicated rules that vary by sector and Member State. The lack of mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the TCA could have a serious impact on many sectors; (iii) data and digital trade - the TCA offers unprecedented cooperation on digital trade compared with other EU free trade agreements, and it is expected that the EU’s draft data adequacy decision will be confirmed in the coming weeks.