WTO member countries are set to defer a decision to how best to overhaul the tariff rate quota system for agricultural imports until the end of 2021, after a series of meetings in Geneva over the past two years have ended in deadlock. A review mechanism which was launched in …
Beyond Brussels
Beyond Brussels: New Zealand-led group launches environmental goods and services trade pact
An initiative to liberalise trade in ‘green’ goods and services, and to end subsidies on fossil fuels, has been launched by a small group of countries at this week’s UN General Assembly in New York. The initiative, led by New Zealand, is intended to show that trade policy can serve …
Comment: A US-China trade deal needs some balance and cooperation with US allies
The United States have tried to address long-standing trade concerns with China by using tariffs as a means to put pressure on Beijing. But tariffs won’t likely extract the concessions that Washington is hoping for. A different negotiating tactic involving a balanced agreement with China and cooperation with allies may …
Beyond Brussels: Appellate Body members rebuff Walker process reform proposals
A new fault line is emerging in the crisis of the World Trade Organizations’ dispute settlement system. The European Union, which tabled proposals aimed at strengthening the Appellate Body’s independence – and won over China and India over to its ideas last year – is now facing a coalition of …
Beyond Brussels: Brazil accepts to forego WTO developing country status
Two alpha-males met in Washington yesterday and displayed their mastery of the Art of the Deal. But it’s worth looking at at the fine print of the Brazil-United States understanding reached last night.
Beyond Brussels: WTO digital talks get off to uneasy start
This week more than half the World Trade Organization’s membership formally kick-started negotiations towards a ‘plurilateral’ agreement on e-commerce.
Beyond Brussels: Success at Davos as countries agree to start digital trade talks
Four dozen World Trade Organization members including the EU, China and the US will kick off negotiations on digital trade in March in a move designed to reinvigorate the beleaguered trade body. Meanwhile, a group of ‘like-minded’ members led by Canada warned that risks to the multilateral trading system – …
Beyond Brussels: Globotics is coming, so ‘be aware and prepare’
Globalisation and robotics will eventually improve the world, but they are creating competition for services jobs that is coming quickly and in ways that will seem very unfair, Richard Baldwin tells Borderlex. Workers and governments must prepare for the advance of ‘globotics’.
Beyond Brussels: Venezuelan WTO challenge is latest to touch national security issue
Venezuela struck back this week against US sanctions targeting the government of President Nicolás Maduro, filing a World Trade Organization complaint that accuses Washington of imposing “coercive trade-restrictive measures on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the context of attempts to isolate Venezuela economically”. The dispute is the latest touching …
Beyond Brussels: The new US argument against the Appellate Body
The US and a dozen other World Trade Organization members have finally agreed about something concerning the Appellate Body: the WTO’s highest court has no authority to issue rulings that set a binding precedent. This issue is a non-issue in the eyes of WTO members including the EU, Canada, Japan …