After European elections later this month, the challenge in Europe will be to keep our nations’ own Trumpian instincts at bay and position ourselves as a safe haven in a turbulent world, writes Iana Dreyer.
World Trade Organization
Key WTO members converge on idea of circumscribing Appellate Body role
The mediation process over the crisis of appointments of departing members of World Trade Organization Appellate Body members initiated last February by New Zealand’s veteran trade diplomat David Walker has visibly channelled discussions over the most divisive issue currently in the WTO onto a path of constructive proposals. On Tuesday …
Steel: EU to stop duplication of safeguard and anti-dumping duties, faces new Russian WTO complaint
The European Union’s safeguard on imports of steel enacted earlier this year has made many EU trading partners and large chunks of Europe’s manufacturing industry unhappy. The import restrictions were enacted to avoid the steel industry taking an unnecessary hit from the global trade frictions triggered after the United States …
Week in Brussels: EU, China, US and the new world (dis-)order, Rules of Origin
As many people in the policy world are taking time off between Easter and the many holidays coming up in May, it’s been a good week to reflect on the state of the world – and of the trading system. We are likely to face very rocky times indeed. For …
Brussels summit: EU and Japan to work on cyber, e-commerce and multilateralism
Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe reaffirmed his country’s commitment to multilateralism during a summit with European Union leaders ahead of a visit to Washington on Friday. He is also enlisting the EU in his government’s new digital initiatives. Japan is chairing the G20 this year – and is enrolling Europeans …
Week ahead in EU trade: Japan, WTO disputes
The two main meetings to look for this week in EU trade are an EU-Japan summit and the next meeting of the WTO’s dispute settlement body. Japan’s premier Shinzo Abe will be in Brussels on Thursday (25 April). EU leaders are set to “take stock of the implementation of the …
EU spending its €20billion worth of tariffs on aircraft instead of autos?
The length of the list of United States products the European Commission released on Wednesday (17 April) for governments and businesses to consider as possible targets for retaliatory tariffs appeared surprisingly long to some trade observers. The list was released in response to the WTO’s recent finding that Washington had …
Week in Brussels: Russian WTO steel case against EU, procurement reciprocity, Korean labour
China and EU-US trade relations dominated the news this week. Here’s a selection of what else happened. EU to face new Russian WTO complaint over steel anti-dumping duties This week in Geneva, Russia requested a panel in a dispute filed in February 2017 against the EU’s anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled …
Blog: Are Airbus-related US tariffs revenge for Boeing or standard operating procedure?
“Maybe it’s just another opportunity for President Trump to impose tariffs”, Chad Bown from the Peterson Institute of Economics tweeted in reference to the US’s decision to table tariffs on billions of Euros’ worth of European products. Robert McDougall, a former Canadian trade diplomat, retorted: “The announcement and eventual imposition …
China ready to discuss overhaul of WTO subsidy rules
“Negotiations were difficult but ultimately fruitful”, concluded Donald Tusk after Tuesday’s European Union-China summit in Brussels. The two sides achieved their main objective for their meeting, namely to come up with a joint statement that is meaningful enough to EU capital and commits both sides to specific actions. “In today’s …
