Dombrovskis sees potential in EU-US supply chain resilience collaboration President Biden this week made headlines by announcing a review of the United States’ supply chains. Strategic dependencies on – namely but not only – China and other supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic have had the US government focus …
EU trade policies
EU considers extending its global steel safeguard
The European Union is considering extending its safeguard measures on steel imports beyond the three years mandated by its regulation. The European Commission said it was acting following “a duly substantiated request received from twelve EU member states” – and is now consulting stakeholders. The safeguards were introduced in July …
USTR nominee Katherine Tai wants to “land plane” with EU on Airbus-Boeing tariffs
During her confirmation hearing in the Senate the nominee to become the next United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai offered a general direction of travel for the Biden administration’s trade policy but hardly gave answers on specifics. Katherine Tai said she was pursuing a “worker-centred” trade policy – that also …
MEPs call for unilateral EU actions first before ratifying China investment agreement
The international trade committee debated the EU China Comprehensive Investment Agreement – also known as CAI – for the first time since its conclusion last December. A cross-political group consensus is emerging: the EU needs to move first in other areas of policy affecting its China economic and political relationship …
MEPs slam EU vaccine export authorisation scheme
MEPs in the international trade committee are near-unanimously sceptical of the European Union’s vaccine export authorisation mechanism introduced at the end of January 2021.
Week in Brussels: EU wants fossil fuels out of ECT, anti-coercion, 4 new TDI cases, UK data adequacy
It’s been an eventful week, dominated by the new EU trade strategy or Trade Policy Review. Below, other important developments…
EU 2021 Trade Policy Review – the European Commission’s to-do list
We have put together a list of concrete actions the European Commission has listed in today’s new trade policy strategy communication as a means to fulfil its stated goals.
The new EU trade strategy: self-centred multilateralism
The European Commission is officially releasing a long-announced new international trade policy strategy today. To those who are closely following the European Union’s trade policy there is little that is properly surprising or genuinely new in the text, but it confirms the continent’s shift towards a more defensive approach to …
Chile eyes EU trade pact upgrade by mid year amidst uncertain EU FTA calendar
The Chilean government wants to finalise a series of trade agreement negotiations it has in the pipeline in the coming five to six months as it prepares for the end of the Sebastián Piñera presidency in 2021. Among the dozen deals for Santiago to seal, there is an upgrade to …
Interview: Pursuing the bigger picture in Asia
Now that the European Union has inked an investment agreement with China it needs to take a big-picture geopolitical approach to the rest of the Asian region and a forward-looking approach to transatlantic relations, argues Reinhard Bütikofer in an interview with Borderlex.