News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
Donald Trump signed his first major trade deal on Monday, an update to the US pact with Korea that the president called a “very big deal” that is “very, very good for American farmers”. More sober assessments are that the revisions to the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement are modest and …
Any mention of the World Trade Organization these days usually includes the words “reform” or “Appellate Body”. While efforts to limit harmful fisheries subsidies aren’t making many big headlines right now, the good news is that they actually seem to be making some progress. That’s not to say a deal …
Trade ministers from the world’s top 20 economies will gather today in the coastal Argentine town of Mar del Plata to discuss issues such as e-commerce and inclusive global value chains in the agricultural sector. But there can be little doubt that the $500 billion firestorm brewing between the US …
Just a week after President Donald Trump announced that the US and Mexico had agreed to update some parts of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that “no NAFTA is better than a bad NAFTA deal for Canadians”. But as Trump threatens to push …
Like the proverbial nail in the coffin, the US announcement this week that it would not back the reappointment of Appellate Body member Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing may signal the end of the World Trade Organization’s highest court as we know it. As one trade lawyer put it, the Appellate …
Turkey is definitely not playing chicken when it comes to standing up to US pressure. Ankara has responded to a US decision to double duties on Turkish steel and aluminium by raising its own tariffs on nearly two dozen American products, announcing a boycott of US electronics such as iPhones …
Russia has lost its central argument in a four-year-old World Trade Organization complaint challenging the EU’s energy market laws: the right of the bloc to prevent a single company from owning both natural gas pipelines and distribution networks. The WTO ruled today that certain energy-supply measures imposed by the EU …
Pretty much everyone seems to agree now that the World Trade Organization needs a facelift. However, there is anything but agreement on just how to do it.
Things are starting to wind down on the trade front before the summer recess. Some news – or at least official remarks, if not tweets – can be expected from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Juncker will seek to sidestep …
The Trump administration’s trade complaints against import duties applied by Canada, China, the EU, Mexico and Turkey on US goods are short and sweet – and almost identical. Washington argues that the measures are discriminatory and, except in the case of Mexico, they exceed permitted duty rates. The US lodged …
