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Why Trade-NOW?
Up until now, the debate about trade has been one-sided: It was mainly one side, which dominated the headlines and captured the hearts and minds of the public and stakeholders. As a result, the...
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From the General Agreement to the World Trade Organisation
This blog is about the gap between the old GATT mansion (Villa Bocage) and the modern WTO edifice (Centre William Rappard) – or to explain that more clearly it explores the grey area between the...
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IN MEMORIAM – PETER SUTHERLAND
Peter died last Sunday in a hospital in Dublin, his home city and home country. He was aged 71. He had suffered a heart attack in September 2016, which proved ultimately to be fatal, and had been in...
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A US Retreat from TPP: What Does Services Trade Tell Us?
During last weekend’s summit meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru, President Obama made the case that failure to sign on to TPP would “undermine our position across the region”. It would...
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Interview with Johan Norberg, author of ‘Progress – Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future’
ECIPE: In the current age of misery there is this feeling that the world is getting darker and that the sky is about to fall down. You chronicle and detail a radically different view. What is the...
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Q&A with Fredrik Erixon and Björn Weigel, authors of The Innovation Illusion – How so Little is Created by so Many Working so Hard (Yale University Press)
Question: Why is there an innovation illusion? Answer: People are almost daily fed with horror stories about how robots, artificial intelligence, or smart machines are going to destroy jobs and make...
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The WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi – What are the Results?
The 10th Ministerial Conference of the WTO finished on Saturday night in Nairobi with a package of agreements the WTO itself calls “historic”. Considering that some believed that the WTO was...
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What Types of Protectionist Non-tariff Measures do States Use Most?
Different countries have different strategies to protect their markets. This bar chart shows the top 10 export- and import-restricting non-tariff measures currently applied by India, the USA, Brazil,...
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Migration Seen From Brussels
Much talk and attention in recent weeks to the streams of migrants heading across the Mediterranean to Italy and Malta, and to the large numbers of them that have drowned (over 1800 this year). Seen...
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China – Regionalism and Multilateralism
The history of international economic cooperation teaches us one important lesson: every form of cooperation will die – essentially if not formally – if it does not adapt to new conditions for...