This week’s White House trade truce between the European Union and the United States will only stick if the two sides manage to enter a genuinely structured dialogue process. That won’t be easy. Jean-Claude Juncker’s success in cajoling US President Donald Trump to sign a joint statement is a diplomatic …
Latest news
Beyond Brussels: It’s not the ‘why’, but the ‘how’ of WTO reform that will prove tricky
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.
Trump and Juncker secure a ‘win’ on trade
One thing must be said about Jean-Claude Juncker’s skills as an international diplomat during his visit to the White House: he accomplished his mission, which was simply to ease transatlantic trade tensions. Juncker importantly won over the US to the notion of World Trade Organization reform, a new project championed …
Commentary: Italy’s new government risks undermining EU unity on trade and investment
Italy’s new coalition government is pushing a protectionist agenda that puts national sovereignty at the centre and may well set the country on a collision course with Brussels, Berlin and Paris, argues Nicola Casarini. The new government in Rome is promoting ‘Italy First’, a set of policies that may undermine …
Week ahead in EU trade: Juncker-Trump, Mercosur, Brexit
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 …
(What) a Week in Brussels: Trump, Airbus, CETA, no-deal Brexit
It’s as if everything absolutely had to happen before everyone goes on holiday: inking a deal with Japan, holding a summit with China that actually delivers on a joint statement, launching a WTO reform initiative, introducing steel safeguards, slapping dumping duties on electric bikes and making progress on Mercosur negotiations. …
Beyond Brussels: US WTO complaints against Section 232 retaliation – the arguments
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 …
E-bikes: Up to 83.6% China duties to protect EU sector with rising sales and no job losses
The established European bicycle sector has been rattled by a consumer switch to electric bikes and a surge in imports of both electric and conventional bicycles from China. That might help explain why bicycle producers obtained protection in the form of provisional dumping duties on Chinese e-bikes.
Mercosur talks gain new momentum, though endgame still elusive
EU-Mercosur free trade negotiations gained new momentum during day-and-a-half talks among seven South American ministers and EU negotiators in Brussels. No deal was clinched, but diplomats on the Mercosur side say the ‘endgame’ is within reach. “The talks are going well,” European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström said today. The parties …
WTO: EU drums up support for reform, US pushes agriculture discussions
The EU’s proposals to overhaul the World Trade Organization are gaining traction among some if its leading members. The reform momentum, triggered by the Appellate Body member nomination crisis and the United States’ unilaterally imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, appears to have elicited a US riposte with new proposals …
