News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
The European Commission released its proposals on reforming the World Trade Organization. The move comes ahead of meetings with US, Japanese and Canadian trade ministers next week in North America. A draft version of the EU’s think piece was already circulated to the press this summer – our piece here. …
Like the proverbial nail in the coffin, the US announcement this week that it would not back the reappointment of Appellate Body member Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing may signal the end of the World Trade Organization’s highest court as we know it. As one trade lawyer put it, the Appellate …
In one month, the WTO’s Appellate Body will only have three members left. The United States blocked the reappointment of its latest outgoing member, Shree Babu Chekitan Servansing. Since 2016, Washington has been blocking the appointment of the seven-member body. The US argues that the WTO’s top judges are overstepping …
Pretty much everyone seems to agree now that the World Trade Organization needs a facelift. However, there is anything but agreement on just how to do it.
The Trump administration’s trade complaints against import duties applied by Canada, China, the EU, Mexico and Turkey on US goods are short and sweet – and almost identical. Washington argues that the measures are discriminatory and, except in the case of Mexico, they exceed permitted duty rates. The US lodged …
The EU’s proposals to overhaul the World Trade Organization are gaining traction among some if its leading members. The reform momentum, triggered by the Appellate Body member nomination crisis and the United States’ unilaterally imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, appears to have elicited a US riposte with new proposals …
Washington has hit back at five World Trade Organization members for “illegal” tariffs that were imposed on US products in response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply duties on foreign steel and aluminium. The US announcement today that it had filed five complaints targeting the EU, China, Canada, Mexico and …
The EU is stepping up the pace in bringing forward a World Trade Organization reform agenda announced this spring as the crisis over Appellate Body nominations deepens in Geneva and the world entered the turbulent waters of tit-for-tat trade retaliation in the aftermath of the US decision to impose unilateral …
US tariffs on Chinese goods kicked in today. So did Chinese duties on US products. Chalk up at least another two trade restrictions that will be added to the World Trade Organization’s next semi-annual listing of barriers erected by Group of 20 economies. Earlier this week, the WTO issued …
The EU joined more than a dozen World Trade Organization members in denouncing the Trump administration’s threat to impose import duties on vehicles and car parts, saying such a move would seriously disrupt the world market and harm global commerce. Japan also suggested that such tariffs – which the …
