News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, May 2, 2025
Wang Shouwen, China’s vice minister of commerce and deputy director of international trade negotiations, and Hong Xiaodong, director of the World Trade Department, briefed journalists about China’s position on World Trade Organization reform. Below is a translated excerpt of their comments. For the full text, including the Q&A with journalists …
The European Commission is mulling safeguard measures against rice from Cambodia and Myanmar, two of Asia’s poorest countries benefiting from the bloc’s Everything-but-Arms trade preferences.
The World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body will establish panels based on complaints filed by China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and Russia against United States tariffs on steel and aluminium introduced for national security reasons last spring. A Turkish panel request is still pending at the time of writing. …
The European Commission is preparing two formal negotiation mandates from member states as part of its talks with the United States to bring forward trade relations as part of a joint executive working group set up this summer to calm trade tensions. Chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia-Bercero said his department is …
The three EU institutions have been working at breakneck speed over the last months to make sure that a new EU-wide investment screening mechanism can see light before the European elections next year. The new piece of legislation is shaping up to become, above all, a mechanism for member states …
There are four main items to watch this week in EU trade: Brexit, Section 232 at the WTO, INTA, and EU Australia FTA negotiations. Full English Brexit The real Brexit week will not be the last week of March 2019. If all goes according to plan, real Brexit week is …
This has been a big transatlantic (here and here) and Brexit (here, here, here and here) week. But it’s also been a big week for other EU trade topics. EU and South Africa reset The EU-South Africa summit got the two sides talking again – not least on all matters trade …
One has to wonder what Cecilia Malmström heard in Washington this week that spurred her to step up her warnings about the urgency of modernising the World Trade Organization at a conference hosted by the French economics ministry today.
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström reported “progress on regulatory cooperation” during her meeting with counterpart Robert Lighthizer in Washington yesterday. The two sides are seeking to strike bilateral deals to reduce red tape for trade at the border and avoid duplicative testing procedures. “We could see decisions already [in the] …
The White House is circulating a Section 232 report by the Department of Commerce on the national security implications of auto imports ordered by US President Donald Trump last summer for feedback among various US government departments. The move comes days after US midterm elections and following a trip over …
