Blog
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Trade in Time of Corona: what’s next for the EU?
The European Commission updated its trade forecasts for 2020 which followed the WTO’s estimates for this and next year. Both reports agree on a dramatic drop in trade volume due to the economic...
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September Song – EU-UK talks approach decision time
We are around halfway through the time allocated for UK-EU future relationship talks. It is four months since the UK finally left the EU, and four months from here take us to the end of September, by...
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The Right Kind of Standard to Fight a Pandemic
On the 20th of March 2020, the EU made a big announcement. To help companies ramp up production on medical goods, 11 standards were made available for free. Anyone could download and read the EU...
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After Azevedo, what next for the WTO?
Roberto Azevedo will have served diligently as Director-General of the World Trade Organization for seven years when he leaves office at the end of August 2020. No one can doubt his commitment to the...
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‘Urgent Need to Review the Mobility Package 1 proposals’ says EU transport sector
The European Parliament Transport Committee continues working on the Mobility Package 1 despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis that led to confinement measures introduced by many European...
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Of debt and disease.
A street pharmacy in Tanzania (from author’s own archives) Debt relief is not a panacea to tackle the pandemic in the developing countries In midst of the corona-crisis, the world's twenty largest...
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A Global Agreement on Medical Equipment and Supplies to fight COVID-19
The trade answer to the coronavirus crisis has been a mix of openness and protectionism. Countries have lowered import duties (examples here, here, and here), imposed export restrictions (here and...
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Coronavirus does not mean the end of globalisation
The world of trade will change for ever. Globalisation is dead. Supply chains will become shorter, and less complex. The nation state is back. Except for China, which is in big trouble. That’s a...
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Call on European Parliament: Stop Freight Cabotage Restrictions and Save the Single Market
60 kilometres of traffic jams on the border between Poland and Germany. 20 hours waiting time due to vehicle inspections. Because of border controls, international freight traffic between Western and...
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Trade policy and COVID-19: Openness and cooperation in times of a pandemic
Covid-19 has hit the world very hard in general and some regions so far in particular (e.g. China, Europe, US) over the past three months. The deep level of interconnectedness between countries and...