Trump aims trade offensive solely to China, renews truce with EU

US President Donald Trump’s thundering trade salvos now seem to be concentrating exclusively against China. This week’s cannonade though didn’t remain unanswered. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said “China will inevitably take countermeasures to resolutely protect our legitimate rights”. On Friday 7 September, the ‘America first’ ex TV celebrity aboard ‘Air […]

Trump rejects Europe’s offer for zero car tariffs; he had personally tabled that idea in July

The US-Mexico trade agreement, with or without Canada on board, targets Europe aggressively. For one thing, it will make life difficult for the German car companies which produce in Mexican assembly lines and sell in the US. Last Thursday, the European Sting reported the hidden sides of the US-Mexico trade deal in an article entitled, […]

Joint U.S.-EU Statement following President Juncker’s visit to the White House

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. We met today in Washington, D.C. to launch a new phase in the relationship between the United States and the European Union – a phase of close friendship, of strong trade relations in which both of us will win, of working better together for […]

EU adopts retaliative measures in response to US steel and aluminum tariffs

This story is brought to you in association with the European Commission This is a European Commission release Brussels, 20 June 2018 The European Commission adopted today the regulation putting in place the EU’s rebalancing measures in response to the US tariffs on steel and aluminium. The measures will immediately target a list of products […]

EU-US Trade: European Commission endorses rebalancing duties on US products

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The College of Commissioners endorsed today the decision to impose additional duties on the full list of US products notified to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as part of the EU’s response to the US tariffs on steel and aluminium products. Following today’s decision […]

Foreign investment to be screened to protect EU countries’ strategic interests

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. New tools to check that foreign investment in EU countries does not threaten their security or public order were approved by the Trade Committee on Monday. Trade MEPs backed plans to set up a mechanism to screen foreign direct investment (FDI) in a transparent, […]

Britain aligns with EU rivaling US on trade and Iran, abandons bilateral ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Last Sunday 29 April, Britain determinedly joined the other two major European Union powers, Germany and France in cautioning the US not to activate its super levies of 25% and 10% on imports of steel and aluminum respectively. Donald Trump, the president of ‘America first’, on 23 March had announced the imposition of the above […]

Trump’s trade war splits the EU; Germany upset with Juncker’s “we can be stupid too”

The US-EU trade war starts on 23 March, with the first shot fired by Washington at 12:01 a.m. (04.01 GMT). From what we know so far, from that minute onward the American customs authorities will impose extra tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, set by President Trump at 25% and 10% respectively. However, it seems […]

The 13th round of TTIP negotiations hits a wall of intense protests and growing concerns

The week of the 13th round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investments Partnership negotiations, which are currently held in New York City, did not start too well for the EU-US deal. About 35,000 demonstrators marched in the streets of Hannover last Saturday, a day ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the German city, to […]

China answers clearly to the European Commission’s investment negotiations with Taiwan

On October 14 the European Commission published a 26 page communication named “Trade for All: Towards a more responsible trade and investment policy“, where it describes a new investment approach of the EU. Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Trade, declared on the matter: “We’ve listened to the debate”…”Europeans know that trade can deliver jobs, growth and investment for […]

The British “nonsense”, the relaxed Commissioner and the TTIP “chiaroscuro” at this week’s Council

“The EU and the US should make all efforts to conclude negotiations on an ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial TTIP by the end of 2015”, was the first conclusion of the first day of the 18-19 December EU Council. That our EU leaders are in an unprecedented rush to conclude the “notorious” trade deal with the […]

Is a full course lunch, a new Commissioner and 2 million anti-TTIP citizens what you would call a “Fresh Start”?

It was last Monday that Mrs Cecilia Malmstrom, the newly appointed EU Commissioner for Trade, paid a visit to Washington to meet “our American friends”, as she calls them. That is to say, “Mike“, Mr Michael Froman, US Trade Commissioner and his team. To her surprise “our American friends” provided her with a full course lunch rather than […]

MEPs Anti-fraud votes for more votes?

Fellow Europeans, you don’t have to worry any more about corruption in the Old Continent. Our MEPs voted yesterday, Thursday 20 March, in favour of the penalisation of the action of stealing your paid taxes. Can an imprisonment penalty of up to 5 or 10 years really stop the “bad boys” from usurping the EU […]

The EU Commission fails to draw the right conclusions about corruption

Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs presented yesterday the first EU Anti-Corruption Report. The Commission estimates that corruption costs €120 billion a year to the European economy. This could be a very low approximation of reality though, because the vast majority of EU citizens believe that among politicians at national, regional, local and EU […]

Europe bewildered by radicalisation and terrorism

Today the Commission will present a Communication entitled “Strengthening the EU’s response to radicalisation and violent extremism”. Despite the fact that the relevant Press release announcing the news stresses that “Traditional law enforcement techniques are insufficient to deal with the evolving trends in radicalisation”, the whole affair is dealt with rather as a police and […]

Advocate General ‘outlaws’ Data Retention Directive

The shallowness that the European Commission shows, while asked to protect the basic civil rights of EU citizens and companies, was ostentatiously proven in the case of the Data Retention Directive. According to the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Cruz Villalón, the Directive doesn’t provide the basic guarantees that […]