It was a low-key gathering of trade ministers in chilly Brussels today. A good moment to gauge the ‘temperature’ on all things trade amongst EU governments. Today should have been the inaugural ministerial gathering for Phil Hogan, the nominated successor to Cecilia Malmström, who led the EU trade portfolio during …
China
Chinese digital and investment agenda makes headway in the WTO
This week China hosted a small ministerial conference with around thirty members of the World Trade Organization in Shanghai. Little has been reported about this low-key meeting. But it appears to have brought some movement in specific WTO files. The gathering in Shanghai offered the opportunity for the EU to …
Beyond Brussels: China tables revised government procurement offer in WTO
The stink the United States and other advanced countries have been putting up in recent months at the World Trade Organization appears to be achieving some results. China and other countries have started listening. The behaviour and status of developing countries in the global trading system, industrial subsidies and state …
European Chamber in China calls on EU to flex muscles on shipping rights
The annual European Chamber’s Executive Position Paper on China released this week was drafted in a particularly punchy tone. Its former president Jörg Wuttke is back in charge after many months of absence. Wuttke is advocating a tough European Union line on trade and investment relationships with China. The 30-page …
Bicycles: 30 years of trade protection for a profitable EU industry
Today the European Commission extended for another five years anti-dumping duties on bicycles imported from China. The duties, which range from 19.2% to 48.5% also apply to imports from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Cambodia and the Philippines inasmuch as they involve Chinese inputs. Japanese and Taiwanese-owned companies operating out of …
EU tightens up its steel safeguard regarding developing countries
The European Commission announced a general tightening of its global steel safeguard on 14 August in the afternoon – in other words, when nearly everybody in Brussels and Geneva was on holiday. The timing of the announcement is not entirely innocent; had the measures been announced in September, there would …
Week in Brussels: Finnish presidency priorities, INTA committee contours, investment facilitation
This week has mainly been about the EU-Vietnam trade agreement and the final stretches over the 20-year-old EU Mercosur trade negotiations.
EU WTO market economy status case suspended – following request from China
The Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization has suspended the high-profile case it brought against the European Union. Beijing sued because it believed the EU had not complied with a commitment to treat is as a market economy in its trade defence measures in time for a December …
Auto vs steel industry battle intensifies over import safeguard
The European Union is reviewing a safeguard it introduced earlier in 2019 to relieve steel producers from inexpensive imports in a market it feared would be flooded by cheap products in the aftermath of the US’s Section 232 steel import restrictions. The measure pits embattled European steel producers against the …
Long read – Self reliance: the emerging EU trade policy trend in a hostile world
The European Commission no longer seems to trust global norms, fora or rule-making negotiations to uphold its interests in digital, competition, industry and trade policy. In fact many norms hardly exist and won’t likely emerge so quickly. The EU’s executive arm has been rethinking its policy toolkit and is seeking …
