News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, October 28, 2021
It’s turning out to be a busy week at the WTO. WTO community worried by EU vaccine export restrictions It’s as if the WTO secretariat were trolling the European Union. The four deputy directors-general currently running the institution issued a statement on Monday, calling for international cooperation in vaccine production. …
The only thing that is certain in this beginning of the year at the World Trade Organization – a body that is yet awaiting the nomination of its next director-general – is that many members disagree. So they file legal disputes.
The General Council has run into a third day of meetings in Geneva today. At the time of writing, WTO members were still meeting. Despite the intensity of the session, there is a sense of failure as the organisation has not been able to agree on anything except the budget …
Ambassadors to the World Trade Organization are meeting for an intensive two-day General Council meeting where few actual decisions are expected, except the most expedient: adoption of next year’s budget, and, if all goes well, a decision on Thursday (17 December) to ban export restrictions on food items purchased by …
Ahead of the last General Council meeting of the year – the agenda of which is now finally out -, US Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea, who represented the Trump administration in Geneva and oversaw the blockage of the Appellate Body, made a farewell speech as he prepares to …
Some developments at the WTO this week…. Negotiators adopt second version of e-commerce agreement draft text Many observers note that negotiations on a text that would set rules for digital trade in the 21st Century have had difficulties making meaningful headway this autumn. Eighty-six WTO members have been looking in …
Here some notable news on WTO issues this week. US to remove ‘essential’ medical products from its Government Procurement Agreement commitments Whereas official WTO corporate communications focus on the ‘news’ that Switzerland and the United Kingdom will now formally be part of the ‘revised GPA’ of 2014, there is a …
Last woman standing: Appellate Body member Hong Zhao says good-bye China’s Appellate Body member was the last woman standing until yesterday. Hong Zhao, a Chinese scholar, was long a thorn in the eye of the United States. Since the terms of two colleagues expired in early December last year, Ms …
This week at the WTO in Geneva might be celebrated as one of comparatively good news in a world of low expectations. We already covered the fact that two environment initiatives were launched. Celebrating 25 years of WTO The date almost went under as despite its young years, the world’s …
Hong Kong contests US ‘China’ label for its goods exports Hong Kong has filed a dispute against a new United States rule that obliges goods exports from Hong Kong to be labelled as coming from ‘China’. Hong Kong, a WTO member, is a separate customs territory and nominally a different …
