News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
The European Commission has expressed concern over the United States’ Department of Commerce decision to restrict exports of advanced artificial intelligence technology and related semiconductors. A concrete response from Brussels will need to wait, if it materialises at all.
The European Union doesn’t have the right institutions to deal with the crises it has been facing ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Whether it can withstand the next big storm coming with Donald Trump’s second term in the Oval Office remains to be seen. Consistent rule-enforcement and intelligent deal …
The European Commission is throwing away its traditional shyness in resorting to import safeguards.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the recently concluded EU Mercosur association agreement is simply that it involves a trade agreement among economic giants. In other words: it’s not the most exciting of trade agreements. There is a lot of novelty, however. But it lies not in the trade concessions …
The four countries of the Mercosur bloc of South America and the European Commission have concluded negotiations in South America on follow-ups to an association agreement initially concluded in 2019 but which was never ratified. Ursula von der Leyen was able to announce the agreement in Montevideo.
In her mission letter to Maroš Šefčovič, the man she nominated to become the next commissioner for international trade, Ursula von der Leyen asked him to draw up a European Union ‘economic security doctrine’. It’s still early days to know exactly how this doctrine will look like, but first clues …
One can say we find ourselves in a “phony trade war”. While everyone waits for the action to start on the transatlantic trade beat since Donald Trump won the race to the White House for a second time last week, here’s some impressions I’ve been gathering of what people think …
This is a very special week ahead for trade policy in Europe, be it in Brussels, London, other European capitals and at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
One can’t escape a sense of spookiness on this Halloween week-end in Europe as not least international trade policy professionals wait for the results of the United States presidential elections next week. So much in the direction of travel in this field will depend on its outcomes. The EU …
Seventeen ‘Global South’ countries are calling on the EU to scrap its plans to establish a three-tiered deforestation risk benchmarking system to assess the extent to which controls will be imposed on their exports at the border.
