News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
This week the EU, alongside Argentina and Mongolia, is hosting the first ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Torture-Free Trade on the sidelines of the UN General Assemly held in New York this week. The initiative, already joined by 60 countries, aims to spread the introduction by UN members of …
EU trade this week was heavy on WTO reform and China (here, here). Brexit was all over the headlines. But there are no actual new developments to report from the heads of government meeting in Austria with Prime Minister Theresa May this week. The Irish border issue remains unresolved, so …
Any mention of the World Trade Organization these days usually includes the words “reform” or “Appellate Body”. While efforts to limit harmful fisheries subsidies aren’t making many big headlines right now, the good news is that they actually seem to be making some progress. That’s not to say a deal …
The EU and China know they must work together to show leadership in matters of global trade and investment. But realising effective cooperation with trade partners to make the system more robust and to withstand the “disruptive bilateralism originating from Washington” is easier said than done, argues Jacques Pelkmans.
G20 leaders, including US diplomats, managed to put together a declaration calling for urgent work to begin on reform of the World Trade Organization last Friday in Argentina. The next day US President Donald Trump announced a slew of new blatantly WTO-inconsistent tariffs against China, worth $200 billion. This is …
It’s been a big-ticket week in trade, kicked off by a meeting between the USTR and the EU’s trade commissioner on a possible ‘deal’, and two big reports adopted by the European Parliament on relations with the United States and with China. There was also some action on the Brexit …
Trade ministers from the world’s top 20 economies will gather today in the coastal Argentine town of Mar del Plata to discuss issues such as e-commerce and inclusive global value chains in the agricultural sector. But there can be little doubt that the $500 billion firestorm brewing between the US …
This week, EU relations with the United States and China, EU-Mercosur negotiations and a trade ministers’ meeting in South America will dominate the picture. USTR Robert Lighthizer will be in Brussels today to follow up with trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström on July’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and the …
It’s been an intense week on transatlantic trade and Brexit trade front. Below, other interesting bits of news in EU trade. EU-Mercosur focus A lot of noise, little extra substance on EU-Mercosur free trade talks this week. Next week, European negotiators will fly to South America for a 36th round …
Just a week after President Donald Trump announced that the US and Mexico had agreed to update some parts of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that “no NAFTA is better than a bad NAFTA deal for Canadians”. But as Trump threatens to push …
