Trade Working Group

Overview

The techUK Trade Working Group supports techUK members in driving UK’s digital trade policy, and developing positions and raising issues on the ongoing and upcoming bilateral trade negotiations. The group also creates an avenue for discussions around the WTO e-commerce negotiations and for fostering techUK leadership in global settings such as WTO, OECD, UNCTAD, G7, G20.

For more information, please contact:

Sabina Ciofu

Associate Director – International, techUK

Sabina Ciofu is Associate Director – International, running the International Policy and Trade Programme at techUK.

Based in Brussels, she leads our EU policy and engagement. She is also our lead on international trade policy, with a focus on digital trade chapter in FTAs, regulatory cooperation as well as broader engagement with the G7, G20, WTO and OECD.

As a transatlanticist at heart, Sabina is a GMF Marshall Memorial fellow and issue-lead on the EU-US Trade and Technology Council, within DigitalEurope.

Previously, she worked as Policy Advisor to a Member of the European Parliament for almost a decade, where she specialised in tech regulation, international trade and EU-US relations.

Sabina loves building communities and bringing people together. She is the founder of the Gentlewomen’s Club and co-organiser of the Young Professionals in Digital Policy. Previously, as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, she led several youth civic engagement and gender equality projects.

She sits on the Advisory Board of the University College London European Institute, Café Transatlantique, a network of women in transatlantic technology policy and The Nine, Brussels’ first members-only club designed for women.

Sabina holds an MA in War Studies from King’s College London and a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge.

Email:: [email protected]
Phone:: +32 473 323 280
Website:: www.techuk.org

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techUK members only

This group is open to techUK members only. Find out more about the benefits of techUK membership, on our Become a Member page.

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Group Chairs

Matthew Houlihan

Senior Director, Government and Corporate Affairs, UK and Europe, Cisco

Matt joined Cisco as Director for Government Affairs for the UK and Ireland in October 2015, a role which sees him developing and delivering Cisco’s government engagement strategy across the two countries. Matt has recently built on this role to also lead Cisco’s Corporate Affairs work in the UK. Matt chairs techUK’s EU and trade group and represents the tech sector in the Trade and Investment All Party Parliamentary Group.

Previously, Matt worked for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in postings in Paris and in the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. Matt has also worked as an advisor to the UK’s EU Commissioner, in the Prime Minister’s EU advisory team and in various policy roles in the Home Office.

Matt holds a BSc in Sociology and an MSc in European Politics and Policy, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a diploma in Economics from the Open University.

Frank Faraday

Senior Trade Policy Adviser, BSI

Frank Faraday is Senior Advisor Trade Policy for the British Standards Institution (BSI), the UK’s national standards body, a role he has occupied since 2018. Frank works to ensure that UK trade policy reflects the broad interests of the UK’s diverse technology sector where there is a link to standards. Frank represents BSI on numerous UK government trade policy advisory groups focusing on addressing regulatory barriers to trade. Among Frank’s areas of responsibility are the UK’s ongoing trade relationship with the EU, the UK government’s negotiation of new trade agreements and the UK’s position in the WTO in both goods and services.

Before joining BSI, Frank was based in Brussels for many years, heading the sustainability and innovation division of Europe’s largest construction sector trade association before returning to the UK where he worked in various positions in international development and inward investment before managing the global standard for sustainable hydropower.