News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Foreign policy think tanks, usually absent from the trade policy conversations, are now busy working with trade. Weaponisation of trade, export controls, and European tech sovereignty are the themes addressed by two Berlin-based think tanks in recent days: the European Council on Foreign Relations and the German Council on Foreign …
Those in the trade policy world who are looking for some big bang announcement from the European Commission as part of its ‘response’ to the United States Inflation Reduction Act will be disappointed – or relieved, depending on their point of view. The Green Deal Industrial Plan, a leaked version …
The world where export controls in the European Union were a highly technical affair focused on keeping dangerous items out of the hands of a few so-called ‘rogue’ states in a United States-led post Cold War order is now dead. In comes a world harking back to Cold War export …
The European Commission is preparing a new package of measures and regulations to help harmonise customs procedures across the European Union’s 27 member states.
War, a pandemic and the impending climate crisis have greatly impacted the global trade regime. ‘Multipurpose trade policy’ is the new game in town and the tight grip that international trade law once had over the international trading order is loosening. This paradigm shift is not without its challenges. These …
Three years into a pandemic and almost one year into a war in Ukraine have probably durably changed the European Union’s outlook on China. Its policy approach to Beijing this year is to reflect this change.
International think tanks have kick-started the year 2023 with a severe critique of the Biden administration’s trade policy.
The EU and Indonesia achieved some wins during their latest trade negotiations in the week of 12 December. But further discussions will be necessary on several chapters, whilst others, such as trade and sustainable development, are still at an early stage.
This is a first in a series of columns highlighting the work of think tanks on international trade policy. The war in Ukraine with its concomitant surge in energy prices and sanctions enacted against Russia might be seen as having significantly disrupted global trade and meaningfully affected commodities prices. In …
The year at the World Trade Organization’s secretariat is ending on a bitter note amidst a row with India over the use of a 2021 budget surplus. In a context of planning uncertainty, the secretariat did not renew the contracts of around fifty consultants with time-limited work arrangements at headquarters …
