News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
This week has mainly been about everyone getting back to work. The EU’s top priority is the transatlantic relationship. Trade chief Cecilia Malmström, visiting Washington in the early days of January, signals just that. But were there actually any new developments this week on the planned trade deals? Not really, as …
The overarching question shaping European trade policy outcomes this year will be: what role for international trade and investment law for global business and the work of trade diplomats? This issue will be central in the four major files with which European trade policy will grapple: the future of the …
The first full working week of the new year will see the EU focus on World Trade Organization issues. Trilateral US Japan EU Trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström will be in Washington tomorrow to meet her US and Japanese counterparts and discuss topics of joint interest in relation to WTO rules …
The US and a dozen other World Trade Organization members have finally agreed about something concerning the Appellate Body: the WTO’s highest court has no authority to issue rulings that set a binding precedent. This issue is a non-issue in the eyes of WTO members including the EU, Canada, Japan …
The strong effects of regional trade agreements on commerce between members show that economic integration works, writes Per Altenberg. Negotiating RTAs that liberalise trade is an effective strategy for countries that seek economic improvement through trade, he argues.
Formally it’s a quiet week for European trade policy, with a limited number of scheduled official meetings. But one can expect movement on a variety of trade files before everyone goes on holiday for Christmas.
Formal EU proposals to reform the World Trade Organization don’t go far enough in pulling in the reins of Appellate Body judges, the US ambassador to the WTO said this week. The appellate function will continue for now on the basis of a rotation system.
Happy Monday dear readers. This is going to be a week of reckoning for some pressing European trade policy files. Will we get a Japan deal? Will the House of Commons accept the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement with the EU? What happens next in the WTO saga? (And, what about ‘la …
This week’s top stories: Britain and services in the WTO, a big bazooka in the WTO’s dispute settlement body, a Japan deal at risk of falling victim to German and other social-democratic political decline, member states wrangling over rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia. But also these stories here: Top …
China has joined a host of other World Trade Organization members in calling for WTO reforms and is actively working on its own proposal on how to tackle problems at the Geneva-based trade body. But with many Chinese policies in the crosshairs of a joint reform proposal by the EU, …
