News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
The official countdown has now started for a new alternative appeals mechanism to start functioning among a subset of World Trade Organization members who decided they’d stand up for their right to enjoy two-level adjudication of disputes. The MPIA, the acronym for the new ‘arrangement’, was announced one month ago …
EU-South Africa frozen chicken dispute notched up one level further After 18 months of consultations the EU decided to request a formal panel in its long-standing dispute with the Southern African Developing Community over the latter’s safeguard on imports of frozen bone-in chicken. The EU criticises the data and the …
Less than four months after the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization ceased to function sixteen members of the Geneva-based organisation announced they had agreed to an alternative mechanism to settle legal disputes at appellate level.
We announced it last Thursday and things went according to plan: Coreper said yes last night. The EU’s revised ‘enforcement regulation’ is thus going ahead and only needs to clear a final hurdle at ministerial and European Parliament level, where one can expect smooth sailing. The EU is amending rarely-used …
This week was ‘virtual summit’ week, with a focus on the global coronavirus pandemic and its dramatic economic fallout. G20 leaders gathered virtually on Thursday and European Union heads of government had very long meeting online last night that almost failed. But capitals still managed a joint statement. There were …
The European Union is revising for a second time its steel import safeguard which it formally introduced in February 2019. Turkey is now potentially complicating the process. Imports of steel from across the world were restricted following the United States’ decision to introduce high tariffs on steel imports on national …
Did you expect the European Union to quickly come up with a revamped ‘enforcement regulation’ ? Don’t hold your breath. France, among others, wants this to become a bigger piece of legislation than originally envisaged by the European Commission.
It took Indonesia a long time to move from threat to action: but now we have the complaint filed by Jakarta against the European Union’s REDII directive in its relation to imported biofuels. The Indonesian complaint also targets France’s tax exemptions for biofuels – which do not cover biodiesel based …
The European Union was largely rebuffed in a second compliance report it requested regarding subsidies to Airbus today at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. US tariffs introduced against the EU in retaliation for these subsidies are already in place. These tariffs were authorised in October by a WTO arbitrator …
The General Council of the World Trade Organization had an extensive discussion of reform proposals for the institutions’ Appellate Body put together by David Walker, New Zealand’s envoy to the institution in Geneva. The ball is now in the camp of the members to take further decisions in the coming …
