News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
The Finnish presidency of the European Council has tried to bring forward discussions among member states on how to bring forward a piece of legislation on public procurement aimed at creating ‘leverage’ vis-à-vis third countries with procurement markets that exclude European firms. The talks have started again, but the Council …
United States aims to ‘reset’ transatlantic trade relations ring hollow. The US is moving ahead with further import duties on EU products. It is not interested in an OECD agreement on digital taxation. And it has definitely pulled the plug on the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. The EU for …
The European Union was largely rebuffed in a second compliance report it requested regarding subsidies to Airbus today at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. US tariffs introduced against the EU in retaliation for these subsidies are already in place. These tariffs were authorised in October by a WTO arbitrator …
This week is when the new European Commission team led by Ursula von der Leyen takes over the reins in the Berlaymont. US is watching The United States greeted its arrival with a message by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The United States looks forward to working with this new …
Trade policy will be an instrument of choice for the new European Commission’s ambitious foreign and climate policy. But the von der Leyen programme also reveals many blind spots – not least on how to succeed in overhauling the World Treade Organization and in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, opines Iana …
Today, the Commission made official its intention to remove Nauru, Samoa and Tonga from its list of beneficiaires under its General System of Preferences. It also released an amendment to a ‘vulnerablity threshold’ that caps imports of certain products into the EU. “The recent release of World Bank statistics (1 …
Appellate Body WTO crunch time Well, this week the WTO system will be reeling from the next excuse the United States brought to postpone yet again its agreement to launch the appointment process of new Appellate Body members: remuneration. At the latest AB meeting on Friday, the US said that …
All good things happen on a Friday afternoon when everyone wants to head off into the week-end: the EU just released its offer to the United States towards the conformity assessment agreement they are currently negotiating. If you were wondering what to read over the week-end, here it is! High …
It was a low-key gathering of trade ministers in chilly Brussels today. A good moment to gauge the ‘temperature’ on all things trade amongst EU governments. Today should have been the inaugural ministerial gathering for Phil Hogan, the nominated successor to Cecilia Malmström, who led the EU trade portfolio during …
Usually World Trade Organization ‘safeguard committees’ are an understated, quiet affair. But Monday’s meeting in Geneva was different as it looked at a record number of 45 safeguard measures taken by members in recent months. The European Union’s own steel safeguard, in force since July 2018 and revised last month, …
