News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Beijing and New Delhi are almost entirely on the same page with the EU when it comes to reforming the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. But the US is not showing signs of relenting in its veto on appointments of new judges. Nor are China or India agreeing on the …
Wang Shouwen, China’s vice minister of commerce and deputy director of international trade negotiations, and Hong Xiaodong, director of the World Trade Department, briefed journalists about China’s position on World Trade Organization reform. Below is a translated excerpt of their comments. For the full text, including the Q&A with journalists …
The World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body will establish panels based on complaints filed by China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and Russia against United States tariffs on steel and aluminium introduced for national security reasons last spring. A Turkish panel request is still pending at the time of writing. …
One has to wonder what Cecilia Malmström heard in Washington this week that spurred her to step up her warnings about the urgency of modernising the World Trade Organization at a conference hosted by the French economics ministry today.
The World Trade Organization’s major trading powers blocked each others’ requests for dispute settlement panels on disputes that are likely to shape the future of the world trading system, deferring their resolution to a future date. Monday’s DSB meeting in Geneva however allowed members to hear in detail US objections …
A comparatively ‘quiet’ week in Brussels on trade. The week was eventful on the WTO and multilateral trade front, with Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs, Canada’s mini WTO reform summit, and the UK’s WTO tariff schedule dominating the headlines. Ottawa WTO meeting sets ball rolling on reform As expected, …
US duties on steel and aluminium are not only taking a toll on countries across the globe, but they’re triggering a “wave of direct and indirect actions and reactions” that is likely to expand in the coming weeks and months. “Obviously one country’s action becomes the second country’s reason to …
The EU’s safeguard measures on steel, introduced this summer to avoid deflection of pipes, wires and rods following Washington’s decision to impose 25% steel tariffs on national security grounds, is raising hackles with trading partners. Seven World Trade Organization members expressed their grievances in Geneva today against the bloc’s decision …
Next week, Canada will unveil to a group of World Trade Organization members a discussion paper outlining consensus-based solutions that Ottawa says will bolster the global trading system. The problem is that the US – which isn’t part of that group – has already identified major elements of the Canadian …
Dennis Shea must have been wearing his dancing shoes when he spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Friday. The US ambassador to the World Trade Organization pirouetted around most of questions that, had they been answered, would have offered some new insights into the …
