News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, November 27, 2021
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 …
The launch of the high-level meeting of the United States and the European Union under the new form of the Trade and Technology Council has rekindled hopes of the two sides finding common ground a number of issues. But to be realised the two sides will have to tackle competing …
China’s ambition to join the eleven-country Asia Pacific pact CPTPP seems genuine. It will now be up to other countries to decide the extent to which they are comfortable with its engagement in the world trade system.
The EU sees opportunity in global regulatory leadership through the so-called Brussels Effect. But the attempt to deliberately control what has hitherto been largely market-driven is far from guaranteed to be a success.
