Less than four months after the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization ceased to function sixteen members of the Geneva-based organisation announced they had agreed to an alternative mechanism to settle legal disputes at appellate level.
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Trade committee meets Hogan: some take-aways
Today the international trade committee gathered formally for a two-hour online session for the first time since the COVID-19 related lockdowns. This was an opportunity for an exchange with trade commissioner Phil Hogan. A selection of items discussed therein. EU export restrictions on PPE: the Commission is going ahead with …
Commission makes case for international health trade agreement
Trade ministers of the European Union’s member states gathered online for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown in Brussels to discuss amongst themselves and with the European Commission the most pressing trade issues raised by the pandemic. The meeting was informal. It is being held against the background of …
Comment: Closed or controlled EU borders for the foreseeable future?
The European Commission released a ‘roadmap’ to guide member states and EU institutions in managing a phased exit from the COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe today. Will the Commission’s approach work? Some perspective on the ‘border’ dimension of the crisis. The general approach taken by the Commission in its guidelines is …
Commission to narrow down EU export controls on medical equipment
The EU’s export restrictions on protective medical gear introduced mid-March are due to expire next week. The European Commission has reviewed the measures and is now tabling a new regulation that would narrow down the scope of the rules significantly. The products covered by the regulation are to be narrowed …
Week Ahead: EU-UK, FAC Trade
The trade policy machinery in Brussels is starting to function again, albeit at slow pace. So welcome back to our Week Ahead series! Trade ministers will convene for a videoconference on Thursday to discuss the implications of COVID-19 for trade and global supply chains. This is their first meeting since …
WTO: Services trade to take major hit amidst COVID-19 pandemic
The WTO’s regular global trade forecast released today deserves special attention as it tries to grapple with the as yet hard-to-quantify impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global economic growth and on trade. Trade is always disproportionately negatively affected by economic shocks compared to global output. And this time is …
Enforcement regulation moves ahead
We announced it last Thursday and things went according to plan: Coreper said yes last night. The EU’s revised ‘enforcement regulation’ is thus going ahead and only needs to clear a final hurdle at ministerial and European Parliament level, where one can expect smooth sailing. The EU is amending rarely-used …
Blog: Record anti-dumping duties on imports of glass fibre fabrics from China
If this were not the COVID-19 lockdown period, the EU’s new trade defence duties on glass fibre fabrics – decided upon last week and published on Monday in the Official Journal – would have received much more media attention.
EU US trade talk update: videoconference deal-making and cigarette lighter duties
The European Union and the United States are focusing on getting over the coronavirus pandemic. But on trade, they are still ‘talking’, so to speak. Today the talk coming out of the EU is mildly tougher than usual. The EU announced a modest set of ‘rebalancing’ measures taken in response …
