Past Events

EU-Russia relations have lately been improving. After years of political turbulence fraught by Russian assertiveness and the Kremlin’s desire to regain global or regional power, there are signs that Russian leadership is warming up to a new approach that is more constructive and aims for deeper integration with world -and European markets through new commercial policy deals. Russia has now signaled it wants to resurrect its application to join the World Trade Organisation. Moreover, it has showed an interest to push forward belated negotiations with the EU, commencing with a new "Partnership for Modernization".

Ukraine will soon go to the polls, and the government’s new programme is naturally a key area for the current debate. The crisis hit Ukraine hard and Gross Domestic Product fell by 15 percent in 2009. The economy is now recovering, but economic growth will not return to pre-crisis levels anytime soon.

The valuation of the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) continues to cause tension in US-China relations. Although the People’s Bank of China introduced some limited flexibilities ahead of the Toronto G20 meeting, it failed to convince those who accused China of currency manipulation and call for sanctions, possibly authorized by the WTO.

The debate over China’s currency policy has reached another critical junction: China’s central bank has just dropped its peg to the US dollar to allow for greater currency flexibilities. While it remains to be seen what this move actually will mean for key global exchange rates in future, and for the world economy, it comes after increased pressure on China to revaluate. A bill in the US Congress threatens China with punitive tariffs unless its currency is revalued, and recently the Obama administration reportedly came close to label China a currency manipulator. Europe has also jumped onto this bandwagon, accusing China of boosting its export to Europe with the help of an undervalued currency.

Joint Event - LSE-International Trade Policy Unit and ECIPE

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is considered by many to be the most important multilateral organisations in the world for economic matters. Its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spearheaded many rounds of trade negotiations that reduced barriers to trade and boosted globalisation and economic growth. Recently, the WTO has given an insurance against crisis-induced beggar-thy-neighbour tariff hikes and a replay of the escalating protectionism the world experienced in the 1930s.

The EU’s rural development policy – the second pillar of the CAP – will receive €14 billion in funding in 2010. Whereas the overall CAP budget will likely be cut after 2013, rural development funds stand to increase further. Just about everyone agrees that the CAP has to do more to tackle challenges such as biodiversity loss and climate change, and that this can be best achieved through targeted measures of rural development policy. But how effective is the EU’s rural development policy really?

While the dispute-settlement mechanism under the WTO has become increasingly a centre court for tensions between East and West, it has also highlighted the question of supra-national rules against sovereignty in international economic law.

The China-EU dialogue is about to enter a new phase after years of summitry and rhetorics. To follow up on past week's visit by Barroso's delegation to China and the upcoming re-start of the High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue, ECIPE invites you to a lunch seminar with a presentation by Dr Xiaotong Zhang , Deputy Director at the Mission of China to the EU.