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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

It is certain that the world will overcome the COVID-19 crisis, as much as it is certain that in the aftermath the world will look different with regards to global trade. International trade patterns...

We are at war. But this war is different. There is no visible enemy, no border, no ideological divide. And yet, as in the past century’s conflicts, our lifestyle changed, our habits are hit by...

Introduction The bravest prediction in the midst of a crisis is that nothing will change as a result. Typically at such times, the optimists hope that a crisis will be the incentive to fix the...

The economic impact of the coronavirus or COVID-19 will be dramatic and long-lasting. Governments across the world have put in place extraordinary economic measures to support their health systems...