The EU Should be Cautious in Following the US Footsteps on Outbound Investment Screening
On January 24 2024, the EU announced its strategy on outbound investments with the objective of establishing a comprehensive outbound screening policy. Although the policy outcome will not be known until 2025 at the earliest, the EU is likely to introduce an initiative resembling the US outbound investment screening regime. But the EU is not the US. Introducing such a regime will be a challenge for the EU.
TradeExperettes Unpack MC13: Achievements, Challenges, Lessons Learned and the Way Forward
Emilie Kerstens & Belén Gracia
In a recent webinar hosted by TradeExperettes, esteemed experts including WTO DDG Johanna Hill, Alice Tipping, Director of Trade and Sustainable Development at the IISD, and Tiffany Smith, Vice President for Global Trade Policy at NFTC, provided their insightful reflections on the outcomes of MC13, shedding light on its accomplishments, failures and perhaps most importantly, the path forward.
Reviving the Oceans, Revitalizing the WTO: Three Ways to Make the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies a Success
This week, all eyes are on the WTO 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) and its 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. Further rules proposed for MC13 would help members better target the underlying role of harmful fisheries subsidies that cause overcapacity and overfishing.
Digital services trade “must-haves” for MC13
Jane Drake-Brockman & Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås
The internet is a global public good that we can no longer take for granted. Recent years have witnessed escalating constraints on cross-border data transfers - undermining the integrity of the internet itself, and threatening the global digital transformation. The WTO has a critical role to play to keep markets open, particularly to the benefit of MSMEs firms in developing countries. MC13 can contribute to this goal.
Landlocked Developing Countries and Trade in Africa
Princess Puskas & Tlotlo Nkile
Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are usually marginalized from major transportation networks and logistics services. to enhance their access to the global market. To overcome this problem, they should cooperate to build sustainable transport and communications infrastructure that improves transit efficiency, promotes regional integration, and enhances business competitiveness.
Internationalising Mobile Banking in Africa
Digital payments have emerged as an alternative to the traditional concept of money. Notably, mobile money has been revolutionary for cross-border remittances in Africa, and a major catalyst for payments growth in the continent. However, despite its increased use and the likelihood it will have a more radical and lasting effect on African markets, there are still remaining challenges to the adoption of mobile money across borders.
Framing the success of the EU as a Global Digital Actor?
Data is the ‘lifeblood’ of the economies and digital trade across the world, but it is also the source of much concern about privacy rights, the capacity for commercial manipulation of personal information, and State and private actor disputes. Institutionalisation can synthesise these many cross-cutting themes and transatlantic efforts in the area of data privacy constitutes a key case study on this topic.
Better logistics for better supply chain connectivity
Mia Mikic & Sherry M. Stephenson
What are logistics? From the perspective of late 2022 asking this question may appear ridiculous. The term has been used so much in all aspects of our lives for the last three years that we feel we can intimately relate to it. But do we know what it actually is? The APEC region took the lead in 2022 in pushing forward a better understanding of the important but often underappreciated logistics activities to examine their role in moving essential goods across borders.
Is this the last chance for the EU–MERCOSUR Agreement?
The EU and MERCOSUR will negotiate an additional instrument in the Association Agreement to address sustainability issues. This blog explores the possible scenarios that could result from it, with a special focus on deforestation. To achieve consensus, a mutual-gains approach may be the last chance for the Agreement.
If at first you do not succeed, try women's economic empowerment through trade
A close look at the background and the outcome of the WTO Joint Ministerial Declaration on the Advancement of Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment within Trade shows us how far WTO Members are willing to go to use trade to overcome gender inequality.
Reforming the WTO requires political will
As the WTO Ministerial starts next week, unfortunately, there is not much we can expect, due to the lack of political will. The world is in acute need of global rules and a functioning multilateral system, but reforming the WTO requires political will and a true global commitment.
The Seen and Unseen Protectionism in the U.S. State of the Union
On March 1, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden gave his first State of the Union (SOTU) speech. While trade policy has not been a priority for the Biden Administration, it played a larger than expected role in the speech. The president not only explicitly spoke about trade policy but discussed other priorities less obviously related to trade.
Shifting the dial on women and trade
Through the last two years the pace of global discussions about trade and gender has accelerated, and innovative new models are under discussion. This is good news; but shifting the dial in a practical way for women is still a work in progress.
The U.S. response to the EU CBAM: Past responses and future prospects
A look at three different approaches that the U.S. could take in the near future in response to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
2021 - The Year Trade Turned to Women
Due to the pandemic, 2021 will forever be remembered as the year when trade turned to women. Not only are the key global trade institutions all helmed by women, but their memberships’ collective mindset shifted to allow for the removal of the gender-neutral blindfolds and concrete advances in the informal work program among several WTO. It is vital to maintain the momentum of 2021 and build on it in 2022 and beyond.
Emerging Tensions in the African Continental Free Trade Area
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the most ambitious regional integration initiatives taking place in the world today. Full implementation is still at least a decade away but there is significant value for the countries participating in the process of engagement itself.
Relaunching Transatlantic Trade Relations in Early Biden Presidency?
“America is back. The transatlantic alliance is back,” remarked President Joe Biden shortly after he took office. After inheriting the legacy of the Trump administration’s unilateral trade policy that led to transatlantic tensions, President Biden wants to re-engage the United States’ key allies, particularly the European Union, and re-commit to multilateralism. In mid-June this year, President Biden traveled to Brussels during his first overseas trip to participate in a US-EU Summit.
Can business trade tomorrow on today’s strategies? International trade capability in 2021
As someone who has worked in trade for several years, I naturally find the topic fascinating. However, I had become used to the idea that most people do not – the glazed expressions and rapid conversation changes during dinner party conversations proved the point.
Untangling the Digital Noodle Bowl: The Case for DEPA
As countries contemplate how to boost post-pandemic economic rebuilding, it will be more important than ever to support the smooth functioning of digital trade.
Progress on difficult terrain: The EU-China investment agreement
Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has repeatedly shown that it primarily follows its own path, not necessarily matching the expectations of Western economic partners. Against this background, preliminary assessments of the CAI in Europe oscillate between decisive progress and minor improvement.