Trading with the EU: Opportunities, challenges and what’s next

Ceri Morgan was appointed His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe in September 2025. Ceri is responsible for encouraging trade and investment between UK and other European countries as well as Israel. Before that she led the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on international trade and international food security. Ceri was made a Commander of the British Empire for her services to capability and inclusion in international trade.

William is the Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, where he has been instrumental in advising on EU exit and the UK’s new trade and investment policies. Previously, William spent over ten years as an academic lawyer specialising in Constitutional and EU law and five and a half years as an MP (Glasgow North East).

Patrick is the Port of Antwerp-Bruges’s International Trade Networks Manager. Patrick has spent the majority of his career working within the port, Europe’s second largest. Through this experience he has developed extensive knowledge of international trade, logistics and supply-chain management, as well as a strong network with the diplomatic community in Brussels.

Richard Oppenheim is Director of the Diplomatic Advisory Hub, a joint initiative between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC). Housed at the BCC Headquarters in London, the Hub provides trusted, actionable FCDO geopolitical insight to businesses across the UK in support of the UK government’s growth mission.

Richard brings with him a wealth of diplomatic experience across some of the world’s most complex and strategically important markets in the Middle East, and Japan. Richard has served as the UK’s Ambassador to Yemen, as Deputy Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and held diplomatic appointments in Iraq, Oman, New York and Japan.