The European Union is investing political capital the African Continental Free Trade Area. What’s the state of play in getting the world’s largest free trade area off the ground? And why does the project matter so much for Europe? By Françoise Guei.
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What you need to know: A potential US exit from the Government Procurement Agreement
The WTO’s General Council meets this week. It will hear US gripes about the world trade body and receive proposals to improve it. One of the ‘solutions’ Washington has envisaged for itself is to withdraw from the institution’s Government Procurement Agreement. What would this mean in practice?
US tariffs: unbound
As ‘green room’ meetings take place in Geneva this week to – likely unsuccessfully – secure progress on the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body crisis, the US administration’s ongoing project to give trade wonks an aneurism may be about to enter a new chapter: the US is considering raising their …
WTO Reform: What can Azevêdo achieve in Washington?
At Davos in January 2020, US President Donald Trump announced that he and the WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo would meet to discuss the reform of the world trade institution. Credit: White House.President Trump announced at Davos last month that he and Director-General Roberto Azevêdo were deep in talks about reforming …
WTO Investment Facilitation talks – what they are all about
More than 70 WTO Members will spend the next five months trying to negotiate new rules on how governments regulate investment and treat investors in their countries as part of the ‘Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation’. The rules they aim to agree primarily focus on predictability, transparency, simplicity and equity …
Life after the WTO Appellate Body: the case for more flexible dispute handling
The Appellate Body is dead – long live the WTO! In this column, Wolfgang Weiss discusses alternative ways to uphold compliance with World Trade Organization rules in spite of the current Appellate Body impasse. Weiss argues that the current crisis might alter the way panels apply WTO law.
Brussels trade policy preview 2020: a bumpy ride ahead
Photo credit: WTO. EU Commissioner Phil Hogan, who met WTO DG Roberto Azevedo, a few days before taking office as trade commissioner in November oast year, will be in charge of devising a new EU strategy to revive the WTO and put the Appellate Body mechanism back to work. A …
WTO Appellate Body loses quorum: what happens next?
In his first in what will hopefully become a long series of blogs for Borderlex Dmitry Grozoubinski takes a relentlessly pragmatic look at the World Trade Organization and the world trading system with one question in mind: “You’re busy, what do you need to know?”
Comment: The new European Commission’s key trade challenges ahead
Trade policy will be an instrument of choice for the new European Commission’s ambitious foreign and climate policy. But the von der Leyen programme also reveals many blind spots – not least on how to succeed in overhauling the World Treade Organization and in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, opines Iana …
Comment: Let’s move on to implementing the EU Singapore Free Trade Agreement
The EU Singapore Free Trade Agreement will boost ties with a partner who believes in multilateralism and a rules-based international order. Now it’s time to focus on implementing its provisions, especially those on labour and environment. By MEP Pedro Silva Pereira.
