News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
It was widely expected. The European Commission’s Phil Hogan will not throw himself in the race to become the next World Trade Organization director-general after all. Hogan did not find enough support among member states for his leadership bid – and soundings with other partners, including the United States – …
Germany takes over rotating EU presidency On Wednesday, Germany is taking over the presidency of the European Union for a period of six months. Its full six-month programme for the period starting in July 2021 will be released on Tuesday. But an 18-month ‘trio’ programme put together with Portugal and …
With new fire added to the brewing tensions in EU-US trade relations as new tariffs on the EU were announced in Washington, the EU mulling new retaliatory measures against US trade ‘coercion”, and Brussels infighting over the issue of who – if at all – it will put forward as …
The European Commission clearly fears the European Parliament could sabotage its attempt at getting an amended so-called ‘enforcement regulation’ up and running quickly. The EU wants to upgrade its legal arsenal to be able to respond to situations where a country blocks legal proceedings in the World Trade Organization’s Appellate …
COVID-19 trade collapse “could have been worse” says WTO’s Azevêdo The WTO released fresh data on global trade flows during the pandemic. Initial estimates for the second quarter, when the virus and associated lockdown measures affected a large share of the global population, indicate a year‑on‑year drop of around 18.5%,” …
The United States are currently threatening new tariffs on neighbours and allies left, right, front and centre. It’s clearly election campaign season for an embattled US president Donald Trump. Signs are European Union efforts to find some form of ‘settlement’ with the US on aircraft subsidies have been in vain, …
The countdown is on. The kick-off of a nomination process to a successor to Roberto Azevêdo, who resigned as World Trade Organization director-general, will begin in two weeks – on 8 July. Member countries need to put forward their candidates before then. So where are we in the process? As …
There was no joint statement of any sort after Xi Jinping, Li Kequiang, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen hosted a lengthy online summit today. Instead, we were issued a statement from the European Union leaders on what the bloc wants to see from China over the next months. …
EU China Summit This week will start big, with an EU-China summit kicking off this morning. The meeting will be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping himself, the Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen and the Council’s boss Charles Michel to take stock of an increasingly complex and controversial relationship …
It’s been quite a week in terms of trade news, with the launch of an EU healthcare initiative with the WTO’s Ottawa Group meeting and new plans to control foreign subsidies of companies operating in Europe. Below some other notable news. UK talks: European Parliament talks tough on LPF and …
