News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
It is difficult for great trading powers such as the European Union to meaningfully engage with other regions such as the Indo-Pacific, given their increased preference for autonomous measures over trade agreements. There is a need for a broader consideration of EU objectives, and potentially new tools to deliver them.
The European Union’s new, increasingly assertive, trade policy is now fully coming together with the formation of a new German coalition government and the upcoming French presidency of the Council. Paris and Berlin share many similarities in their approach to this EU policy are but are likely to differ in …
The UK-US-EU ‘triangle’ is one to keep watching. The British government is going through a few self-inflicted setbacks in its trade relationships with the United States, giving the European Union an advantage as it settles Trump-era trade irritants. But over time London should – and will – strengthen its diplomacy …
The expected outcomes from the coming 12th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization will likely be disappointing overall. But members of the global trade institution still have the chance to make a difference – through showing genuine support for its role.
There is a steadier feel to UK trade policy now that Anne-Marie Trevelyan has replaced Liz Truss as secretary of state. But true impetus requires the resolution of long-outstanding policy questions.
The recent EU-US agreement on steel and aluminium tariffs appears to reinforce EU Green Deal and US domestic economic priorities combined with the wish of weakening China. This comes at the cost of undermining fundamentals of the World Trade Organization. This carries some risk, particularly for the EU.
As global attention turns to climate change and the COP26 summit, the EU’s proposal for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is to be welcomed for advancing the debate on how concretely trade policy can help the fight against climate change from theory to action.
Recent set-piece speeches by ministers responsible for trade policy from two governments regarded widely as intransigent, the US and UK, failed to dispel the notion that they were just that: set speeches. The set-piece approach is symptomatic of a wider mistake involving the use of public trade diplomacy to justify …
The difficulties faced by the World Trade Organization are becoming ever more apparent in the run-up to the 12th ministerial meeting. It is time to act – or face difficult truths about its future prospects.
News of agreement on the Joint Statement Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation were a highlight of last week’s World Trade Organization’s Public Forum. Given that full-blown multilateral deals look unlikely in the immediate future in the global trade institution, deepening the trade rulebook among selected countries is better than the …
