The European Commission was right to let restrictive measures on Ukrainian grain lapse, but the decision has had negative side-effects. On 15 September, the European Commission allowed a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports (maize, wheat, rapeseed and sunflower seed) to expire. The ban had been introduced on 2 May 2023 under pressure from five EU countries bordering Ukraine (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), which feared their own producers would be harmed. Initially set for one month until 5 June, the ban was subsequently extended. It is unclear what im ..read more

The European Union’s internal debate has involved a lot of navel-gazing lately. Feeling squeezed between the United States and China, yet not fully equipped to take a leading role in the neighborhood, European leaders are pondering the challenge of becoming more autonomous and more geopolitical. While thinking about how to become a stronger foreign policy player, Europe should use the leverage that it already has—trade. No country has more trade agreements than the European Union (50 in force or provisionally applied). As a superpower in trade with the only real internal market in the world, t ..read more

Brexit and the allocation of cod quotas re-opened old wounds. Now, Norwegian authorities risk conflict with other states about the extent of the Svalbard Treaty, professors argue. Vessels with flags of all shapes and colors sail in Svalbard waters chasing cod. For a long time, this went on with hardly any friction at all. However, when Great Britain left the EU, the fight over fishing rights around Svalbard resurfaced. Norwegian authorities argue that the Svalbard Treaty only applies in the 12 Nautic miles from land zone, and that further out, the Law of the Sea applies, granting Norway sovere ..read more

And that in turn depends on their ability to deal with the weight of the past, to navigate the fog of the present and to tackle the challenges of the future. Before it proves too late. The Weight of the Past Time often turns back on itself. When Joe Biden met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel for the first time as president in Brussels on June 15, the two sides knew they had to turn the page—on four tumultuous years of Donald Trump, but also on four years of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, which ..read more

The current global semiconductor shortage illustrates how geographic clustering of input suppliers can generate upheavals in the rest of the world. Business leaders and policymakers must think now about how to minimize the effects of future exogenous shocks on production networks and the global economy. MUNICH – Automobile and electronics manufacturers worldwide have recently had to reduce output because a severe drought in Taiwan has hit the island’s production of semiconductors. This and other global supply-chain disruptions – many of them caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – have promp ..read more

To become climate neutral by mid-century, the European Union and other major economies must substantially reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during this decade. The EU aims to reduce its emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels with a wide range of policies recently proposed in the ‘Fit for 55’ package. Meanwhile, the United States (US) aims to reduce its emissions by 50-52 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and China wants its CO2 emissions to peak before 2030. To achieve this, serious investments will be needed. Below, we review the multiple estim ..read more

Last week, Politico featured an interesting article about EU trade negotiations by Barbara Moens, titled, “Europe’s Glory Days of Trade Deals Are Over.” The piece began on a gloomy note: That [negotiating trade deals] seems a distant memory now for the world’s biggest trade bloc. Concerns about human rights in China and fears about deforestation in Latin America mean that the EU’s free trade agenda is running out of steam. Doing trade deals is no longer just about keeping German carmakers and French farmers happy — which was often challenge enough. EU trade officials must now also please young ..read more

According to the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Dashboard, as of April 2021, 45 countries had in place national or supra-national carbon pricing schemes, in the form of either an emission trading system (ETS) or a carbon tax. Although existing schemes still only cover 18.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the international appetite for carbon pricing is clearly on the rise. Ten of the G20 countries already implement such schemes and, at their 9-10 July meeting in Venice, G20 finance ministers adopted a communiqué encouraging, for the first time and “if appropriate, the use ..read more

The European Commission has launched an ambitious roadmap termed the Green Deal that aims to make Europe the first carbon‐​neutral continent by 2050. The deal proposes several pioneer trade restrictions aimed at mitigating climate change. And although this proposed measure may not be implemented for several years, its mere proposition will open a new front for trade confrontations. The proposed measure would attempt to minimise the effects of climate change using an economic approach. As such, its consistency with the rules of world trade could become a matter of global de ..read more

To end neoliberalism and defend energy resources, the present government of Andres Manuel López Obrador must step up and avoid at all costs the inclusion of supranational arbitration mechanisms in a renegotiated FTA with the European Union (EU-Mexico FTA), and ensure that European transnational corporations are made accountable for human rights violations in Mexico. Since president Salinas de Gortari in the early nineties, Mexican governments have adopted a neoliberal approach to international trade and given away our legal sovereignty to transnational corporations by signing free trade agree ..read more