News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, May 5, 2025
The Swiss government announced today that it would restrict exports of personal protective gear – gloves, masks, goggles and other items needed to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The move was made against the background of shortages of such products amidst a surge in cases in the …
On Monday the European Commission issued guidelines to member states on how to best manage a system of ‘green lanes’ it adopted at critical border junctions in the European Union to ease the flow of goods in the bloc’s much-vaunted single market. But what do these guidelines really resolve?
The European Commission has issued guidelines to member states that signal it has significantly watered down export restrictions on protective medical gear such as gloves or masks introduced earlier this week. Last week-end’s EU move – intended to be in force for a period of 6 weeks only – provoked …
The European Union is revising for a second time its steel import safeguard which it formally introduced in February 2019. Turkey is now potentially complicating the process. Imports of steel from across the world were restricted following the United States’ decision to introduce high tariffs on steel imports on national …
Border closures within the EU introduced by member states to stem the spread of COVID-19 and EU-wide restrictions on travel into the bloc imperil medical supplies, say operators in the medical industry.
It’s a bit of a thankless task to have to unpluck 441 pages of a leaked draft EU treaty during a corona virus outbreak and amidst many other urgent trade matters that need covering. But here some initial thoughts on the ‘trade agreement’ aspect of the deal after a first …
Brussels’ move is such a rare occurrence that it’s worth delving into the details of the European Union’s new export restrictions of protective medical gear introduced following the COVID-19 outbreak on the continent. Legally, the measure is an ‘implementing regulation’ of a 2015 regulation on common rules for exports (Regulation …
Since Friday, the European Commission has been negotiating behind the scenes with member states and the EU’s medical industry to hammer out an arrangement that would put an end to internal barriers to trade in medical products that have gone up in recent days as the corona virus crisis deepened. …
It should have been a formality. The EU Vietnam free trade agreement was due to be adopted at a meeting of trade ministers that was cancelled last week. This move followed on a decision by the Council not to hold ‘non essential’ Council meetings in Brussels in order to contain …
It’s not only trade itself that is disrupted by the ‘corona virus’. The global and European Union trade policy machinery is also grinding to a halt. Meanwhile trade restrictions are increasing on the back of the global sanitary crisis. The disrutiption of physical trade and global supply chains on the …
