News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
This has been an intense week in European Union trade policy, with the continuous transatlantic file rolling on, a lot of action in Geneva, the EU and the ACP group finally concluding their post-Cotonou agreement and the European Parliament active on a variety of trade files. MEPs voted to resume …
As everyone in Europe prepares for a second semi-locked down COVID-19 Easter, one must say it hasn’t been the most glorious of trade weeks for the European Union – except for a specific CETA performance.
It’s been one of those mega-weeks in trade again, culminating perhaps with Joe Biden beaming into the European Council last night to say hello. Nothing concrete came out of this meeting. Official statements indicate this was mostly about bonding and setting lofty common goals such as working together on COVID-19 …
In a joint statement circulated by the UK government, the EU and UK have announced that they working on a solution to overcome gripes about real or suspected current and future mutual restrictions on exports of COVID-19 vaccines and related ingredients and inputs. The EU has today amended its temporary …
As announced, the European Commission is tightening up its current export control regime for COVID-19 vaccines. The new rules will apply immediately for a period of six weeks. The EU introduced an export authorisation scheme for COVID-19 vaccines earlier this year amidst shortages, delays and supply bottlenecks of doses deliveries …
The European Union is the major economic power most consistently supportive of the global trade system. Hasty actions undermining this such as vaccine export bans would come at a high price to its standing.
The European Parliament is preparing a report on trade policy post COVID-19. The drafting is in the hands of the Belgian S&D group member Kathleen van Brempt and will help define the parliament’s positioning in several trade policy files in the coming months. A first version of the report is …
Instead of engaging in export controls, the world’s large vaccine producers should come together to clinch a ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Investment and Trade Agreement’, write Chad Bown and Thomas Bollyky in a new piece by the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.
It’s been a long journey for Uzbekistan. The Central Asian country remains one of the world’s most closed and politically repressive countries, but it embarked on a new journey in 2016 after the passing away of Islam Karimov, a particularly cruel dictator. The five-year reform process might lead the country …
The European Parliament is taking a stand on what it wants from EU-wide ‘corporate due diligence’ ahead of legislation that the European Commission is yet to table in a report drafted by Lara Wolters, a Dutch MEP from the S&D group. The report is 79 pages long, has a record …
