News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
One can say we find ourselves in a “phony trade war”. While everyone waits for the action to start on the transatlantic trade beat since Donald Trump won the race to the White House for a second time last week, here’s some impressions I’ve been gathering of what people think …
The Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament have agreed on the final details of the EU’s anti-coercion instrument, whose contours were agreed in principle last March. The legislation is now due to come into force in the autumn 2023. So what’s the final deal?
Emergency Europe, a term forged during the eurozone crisis reached the EU’s trade policy during the pandemic. There are now-established patterns for many areas of trade policy affected by global and regional turmoil. Let’s brace for a more unpredictable EU.
Here are a few highlights of recent think tank trade policy activity.
That the anti-coercion instrument stretched the limits of the EU’s institutional setup was clear from the moment the regulation was tabled by the European Commission in December 2021. What the three institutions negotiated during the ‘trilogue’ phase of legislation does even more so. They know it and have tried to …
The European Parliament made a major concession to the Council to be able to ensure the EU ‘s anti-coercion legislation sees the light: it leaves member states to determine whether they want to start a potential trade war with a third country if the bloc or a member country is …
Member states have collectively agreed they want to water down the European Commission’s planned anti-coercion instrument.
The European Parliament is ready to enter inter-institutional trilogue negotiations with the Council on the EU’s planned anti-coercion legislation after a vote in committee and a decision in plenary this week. Member states are not quite there yet. But they hope to seal a deal among themselves in November and …
The international trade committee of the European Parliament adopted its position on the coming anti-coercion instrument in preparation for future negotiations with member states as it prepares for a likely showdown with EU capitals over the European Commission’s powers in this file.
Everything that has to do with climate-and-trade policy cooperation among the great powers, especially the European Union and the United States remains vague, woolly and hard to fathom. Nonetheless, a further step towards a certain degree of clarity was taken at Elmau at the G7 leaders’ summit hosted by Germany. …
