Unrivalled coverage of European trade policy
Friday, September 25, 2020
There is a discrepancy between the enforcement of labour standards and the other obligations concerning trade, investment and intellectual property in the European Union’s free trade agreements. Here’s how we think that gap can be overcome, write Giovanni Gruni and Marco Bronckers.
Dmitry Grozoubinksi on what comes next in the nomination process for the World Trade Organization’s top job. We are now off to the races, but the finishing line is still far away…
The flagship USMCA trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico is coming into force on 1 July 2020 How does this agreement deal with environmental issues? Bashar Malkawi and Shakeel Kazmi walk us to the key provisions in USMCA on environment – contrasting them with other trade agreements, …
If we want a green and digital economic recovery post COVID-19 we need international trading partners such as Mexico and rules-based trade with a reformed World Trade Organization at its heart, argues Kevin Verbelen.
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.
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?
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
