News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Preventing a subsidies war, export restrictions, non-economic objectives, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and reducing critical dependencies have all been in the spotlight for international think tanks. Here are some highlights from the last fortnight, where heavy-hitters have chimed into today’s existential debates on the future of the trading system.
Borderlex hosted a panel discussion at the World Trade Organization’s Public Forum in Geneva on ‘How trade policy can make (climate) migration work’. Below you will find some key take-aways from this session, including quickly actionable policy recommendations. ***
The EU import safeguard on grains from Ukraine imposed last April after five Central European countries arm-twisted the commission into saving the customs union and single market from their unilateral import bans is now officially dead. But it lives on in the form of Ukraine being obliged to manage its …
Economic security in the Indo-Pacific region, the WTO’s plurilaterals and border carbon adjustment mechanisms (again!) have been in the spotlight this week among international think tanks.
In this week’s think tank column: carbon border adjustment, digital services trade and ‘strategic autonomy’.
The summer 2023 capped off half a decade of a World Trade Organization wrangling with the rule-book’s national security exception. The process has landed the global trading order in a very uncomfortable place. It’s hard to see a way out unless the system accepts Washington’s zero-sum terms.
Here is a roundup of what trade think tanks have been up in August thus far. The Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Hinrich Foundation have been focusing on WTO issues, while the European Council on Foreign relations focuses on the EU’s version of ‘friend-shoring’.
Welcome back to Borderlex after its small team took a much needed summer break ahead of a packed autumn of trade news to expect in Brussels, London and at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. The most notable news thus far in this scorching-hot European summer is the reignition of …
This week it became clear that the European Commission is trying to wrap up a range of trade policy files before the EU institutions wind down for elections in the spring 2024. Another deadline is looming with the United States too over a deal on critical raw materials and on …
Almost two years ago, the EU launched its first Indo-Pacific strategy in which, among others, it vowed to press ahead with trade agreements in the region and to deepen its digital and supply chain resilience conversations with a range of Asian countries. Taiwan also featured in the strategy.
