News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, April 28, 2025
The United States Trade Representative has launched a new Section 301 investigation into the European Union’s plans to introduce a digital services tax as a means to fund its next seven-year budget. A new national security investigation could lead to tariffs on Austrian exports of vanadium. The Commission had tabled …
European Union trade commissioner Phil Hogan announced he wanted a reset of trade relations with the United States during an interactive session with an e-audience of hundreds of listeners convened by the Irish think tank Institute on International and Economic Affairs on Wednesday. The two have plenty to talk about …
The European Union and the United States are focusing on getting over the coronavirus pandemic. But on trade, they are still ‘talking’, so to speak. Today the talk coming out of the EU is mildly tougher than usual. The EU announced a modest set of ‘rebalancing’ measures taken in response …
It’s that time of the year. The publication of the National Trade Estimate report by the US Trade Representative is a yearly ritual and must-read by any trade policy wonk in the world. Even non-US diplomats and policy makers sneakily look up the monumental 500-page annual document that lists all …
This week the focus has been on the soon-to-be-launched EU-UK trade negotiations and the real start to British post-Brexit trade policy. Our *four articles* (!) this week here. But London is not quite the centre of the world. Here other developments this week in EU trade. Hogan flies to Washington …
Trade sniping out of Washington just doesn’t seem to be ending. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the White House was mulling pulling out of the Government Procurement Agreement, a preferential accord among a subset of mostly rich-country members of the World Trade Organization. China and Russia are in the process of …
It’s been a week full of hoo haa around EU US agriculture trade. The EU put a bit of antidumping into its digital strategy. The European Parliament ratified the EU-UK withdrawal agreement on Wednesday and offered a moving good-bye ceremony to Britons. In London, Union Jack flags are being waved …
The target set to China to increase its imports in a series of products by a value of US$ 200 billion in the next two years set in the so-called Phase One agreement between Washington and Beijing clinched last week will lead to China diverting imports and purchases from other …
At a gathering hosted by the largest umbrella group for European business in Monday in Brussels, the EU’s trade commissioner was given a first opportunity to talk about EU-China relations and to debrief on his first official trip to Washington last week. The EU and China are currently intensely working …
Beaming in from Washington into a conference hosted by former trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in London on Thursday, Phil Hogan gave a most down-to-earth assessment of the current trade policy situation in Washington. Hogan’s approach to the United States so far is to seek to avoid further escalation of bilateral …
