News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
This week was ‘virtual summit’ week, with a focus on the global coronavirus pandemic and its dramatic economic fallout. G20 leaders gathered virtually on Thursday and European Union heads of government had very long meeting online last night that almost failed. But capitals still managed a joint statement. There were …
The European Commission is encouraging member states to actively protect critical medical and healthcare assets. In ‘guidelines’ released on Wednesday night, the EU executive body is seeking to fast-forward the implementation of a regulation on the screening of foreign direct investments that is only due to come into force in …
The Swiss government announced today that it would restrict exports of personal protective gear – gloves, masks, goggles and other items needed to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The move was made against the background of shortages of such products amidst a surge in cases in the …
On Monday the European Commission issued guidelines to member states on how to best manage a system of ‘green lanes’ it adopted at critical border junctions in the European Union to ease the flow of goods in the bloc’s much-vaunted single market. But what do these guidelines really resolve?
The European Commission has issued guidelines to member states that signal it has significantly watered down export restrictions on protective medical gear such as gloves or masks introduced earlier this week. Last week-end’s EU move – intended to be in force for a period of 6 weeks only – provoked …
The European Union is revising for a second time its steel import safeguard which it formally introduced in February 2019. Turkey is now potentially complicating the process. Imports of steel from across the world were restricted following the United States’ decision to introduce high tariffs on steel imports on national …
Border closures within the EU introduced by member states to stem the spread of COVID-19 and EU-wide restrictions on travel into the bloc imperil medical supplies, say operators in the medical industry.
It’s a bit of a thankless task to have to unpluck 441 pages of a leaked draft EU treaty during a corona virus outbreak and amidst many other urgent trade matters that need covering. But here some initial thoughts on the ‘trade agreement’ aspect of the deal after a first …
Brussels’ move is such a rare occurrence that it’s worth delving into the details of the European Union’s new export restrictions of protective medical gear introduced following the COVID-19 outbreak on the continent. Legally, the measure is an ‘implementing regulation’ of a 2015 regulation on common rules for exports (Regulation …
Since Friday, the European Commission has been negotiating behind the scenes with member states and the EU’s medical industry to hammer out an arrangement that would put an end to internal barriers to trade in medical products that have gone up in recent days as the corona virus crisis deepened. …
