EU and US agree to strengthen coordination on the enforcement of export controls on Russia

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission and the US Commerce Department have agreed to strengthen coordination on the enforcement of export controls on Russia, building on the excellent cooperation under the US-EU Trade and Technology Council. In a meeting in Brussels, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, […]

EU files WTO panel request against illegal export restrictions by Indonesia on raw materials for stainless steel

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the EU has requested the establishment of a panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to seek the elimination of unlawful export restrictions imposed by Indonesia on raw materials necessary for the production of stainless steel, notably nickel ore and iron ore. The […]

Boeing WTO case: The EU puts in place countermeasures against U.S. exports

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission’s regulation increasing tariffs on U.S. exports into the EU worth $4 billion will be published in the Official Journal of the EU. The countermeasures have been agreed by EU Member States since the U.S. has not yet provided the basis for […]

These are the United States’ most exported products

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Douglas Broom, Senior Writer, Formative Content Silicon Valley may be the tech capital of the world but physical goods still account for around two-thirds of US exports, new figures show. Machinery and electrical equipment brought in $363 billion – […]

G7: A serious setback hardly avoided in iconic Biarritz

The G7 yearly summits are supposed to strengthen the unity of the world’s wealthiest democracies vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Not anymore, many say, but this time there is one important exception: Iran. The leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and of course the US, met during the weekend in the coastal […]

Trump after marginalizing G20 attacks Europe and China where it hurts, brandishes currency war

Last week’s G20 meeting in Osaka confirmed that the forum’s commonly shared concern about our future on the planet is definitively a thing of the past. Last week, the cacophony at the table of the 20 heads of the largest countries of the world – which first appeared last December in Buenos Aires – became […]

The Sino-American trade conflict may be resolved soon

This newspaper for many months has been closely following the US-China trade conflict (if not at times a full trade war). The current negotiations in Washington D.C. are stuck at the same point as last summer. On August 27 our leading article said: “… Washington’s demands go beyond tariffs”. On October 18 we observed, “The […]

The German automotive industry under the Trump spell

Last week, the White House invited, or better summoned, the leaders of the German automotive industry to Washington D.C., in order to confer on the ‘problem’ of the missive imports of German cars in the US. The American President Donald Trump, in his belligerent line aggressively reshaping the American foreign trade policy with China and […]

The new North America trade deal USMCA punishes German cars

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is dead. Long live the new United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA). The three North American nations will continue trading goods of a value of at least $ 1.2 trillion yearly between them. The US President Donald Trump had termed NAFTA as the worse trade deal his country […]

The Brexit factor in the US-China trade war and other conflicts

Last Friday, the American President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One threatened China with new tariffs on $267 billion of goods heading for the US markets, on top of the $200bn worth of Chinese exports Washington currently is ready to punish with extra levies. The US has already imposed extra tariffs on $50bn of Chinese […]

The US-Mexico trade deal a threat for others, Trump to single out China, Europe

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between US, Mexico and Canada is reborn. It was discarded and denounced by the American President Donald Trump since the first days of his campaign to conquer the White House, and now it returns almost undamaged, just under another name. Last Monday, after more than one year of […]

The EU sides with China against the US; but has Germany capitulated to America?

If billions of EU penalties on American icon companies and U.S. super tariffs on European cars are strong and aggressive trade weapons, then yes the EU and the U.S. are at all out economic war. As in all wars, the difficult or even impossible thing is to predict its end. Unavoidably, there will be victims […]

Trump doesn’t only target Germany, aims to crack the entire EU

The EU-US trade war is now deeply dividing Europe between those who export cars to America and those who don’t. Germany and France have for quite some time been at odds, regarding the handling of the latest Donald Trump threat to impose import super-tariffs on cars assembled in Europe. Now, however, their differences are becoming […]

The US calls off globalization, targets Germany. Paris offer to Berlin comes at a cost

Last Friday, the ‘America first’ President Donald Trump repeated his threats to impose a super tariff on imports of European cars, obviously having in mind the German automotive industry. His latest menace came only hours after the European Union moderately retaliated to the US aggressive trade action, by levying additional import duties on American goods […]

France-Germany: Divided in Europe, USA united in…Iran

Last Tuesday afternoon the President of ‘America first’ Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Nuclear non-Proliferation Agreement with Iran. The deal is known as P5+1 and was co-signed by the US, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. There is no information regarding when the US is to re-introduce its economic sanctions against Iran, and […]

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 systematically upsets global order and trade: Where does this end?

The extra import tariffs Donald Trump, the ‘America first’ President, the US is to impose on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) imports have provoked a tsunami of reactions and widespread consequences without and even within the country. The European Commission President reacted swiftly and stated the EU is to retaliate with tariffs of an equal […]

Draghi keeps the euro cheap, helps debt refinancing, recapitalization of banks and growth

Last Thursday, the European Central Bank decided to keep flooding the Eurozone with hundreds of billions, despite strong objections coming from the frugal German-Dutch duo. Mario Draghi was adamant about that. It’s interesting to follow his response to a journalist’s remark, who reminded him that the “Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot said in a […]

Brexit: The Conservative Party drives the UK and Europe to a perilous road

The Tories, the governing party of Britain is falling apart, being deeply divided about the kind of Brexit their country should pursue. It’s not the disastrous political circumstances of Prime Minister Theresa May that blocks the negotiations with the European Union, but the chaos dividing the hard Brexiteers from their colleagues preferring a smooth partition […]

Brexit: Britain and the Continent fighting the battle of Waterloo again

The British Prime Minister Theresa May is amidst an agonizing effort to put together a decent package of trade deals or at least initial and relevant MOUs for the after Brexit era. The obvious reason for that is to convince the Brits and the Parliament that her country will survive after March 2019, in case […]

Trump to subject the Fed, challenge the ECB and make Wall St. bankers even richer

It’s obvious by now that the European Central Bank and its President Mario Draghi are following a diametrically opposite monetary policy than the American central bank, the famous FeD. Both Draghi and ECB Vice President Vítor Constâncio have loudly reassured everybody that the Eurozone’s central bank will continue injecting €60 to €80 billion a month […]

Europe eyes to replace US as China’s prime foreign partner

Last Tuesday, Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, received in Washington the top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi , in an effort to establish a “regular high-level engagement” with China, after President Donald Trump has practically destroyed the until recently multiple channels of problem solving and interaction between the two super powers. Obviously, Tillerson felt […]

Brexit mission impossible: Theresa May was so desperate that had to appoint Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary

It’s been only three weeks since the EU referendum and Britain seems to be already changing dramatically. Theresa May has already become the second woman Prime Minister in the UK’s history after Margaret Thatcher and following the resignation of David Cameron last Wednesday. The Former Home Affairs Secretary has started now forming the new government in the […]

No recovery for EU economy in sight and a Brexit can aggravate things for everyone

The Eurozone economy doesn’t seem able to gain a sustainable growth path, despite the hundreds of billions that, lately, European Central Bank has injected into the financial system. Analysts say, though, that ECB’s intervention came too late. There is more bad news for the real economy coming from the prices front. Last week, Eurostat, the […]

Who is to pay the dearest price in a global slowdown?

What happens in China is more important for the European economy than a meagre fall of unemployment in the Eurozone. Last Tuesday, China said its February exports dived by a record 25.4%, fuelling new fears for a bigger slowdown in the world economy. At the same time, a Press release by Eurostat, the EU statistical […]

Who is to lose from the 6-month extension of the EU economic sanctions against Russia?

The European Foreign Ministers gathered in Luxembourg two days ago and decided to continue imposing economic sanctions to Russia for another six months. This shows the strong intention of Europe to weaken Russia’s power in Ukraine and thus put a stop on Russia’s imperialistic plans. However, Russia claims these sanctions as “illegal and unfounded” and will fight […]

Eurozone stagnates after exporting its recession to trading partners

Today Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published its second and more accurate estimate for the euro area and the EU28 Gross National Product during the last quarter of 2013, and confirmed its flash estimate of 14 February when it had reported GDP increases of 0.3% and 0.4% respectively, in relation to the previous quarter. On […]

High unemployment to continue haunting the EU

Eurostat, the EU statistical service, revealed yesterday that the “euro area (EA18) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12% in January 2014, unchanged since October 2013”. The number of people without a job though increased in January 2014 to 19,175 from 19,158 thousand in December 2013. The rate of unemployment remains obstinately stuck to those very high […]

The Commission neglects the services sector and favours industry

On 22 January the European Commission will present a Communication on an EU wide project, under the grandiose name of “European Industrial Renaissance”. Despite its name, the Communication doesn’t seem to have a strong connection with reality. Even the early pre-announcement of this Communication released on 20 December contains elements of futility. It says “While […]

Who would pay and who is to gain from the EU-US free trade agreement

Challenging the factual reality, that the ‘gains’ from the currently under negotiation EU-US trade agreement would come mainly from deregulation in the fields of health, safety, environment, financial and data security, the European chief negotiator Garcia Bercero insisted that: “the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is not and will not be a deregulation agenda”. […]

Germany loses leading export place

According to the prestigious German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the country lost its leading position in the list of exporting nations. It was not only China that surpassed Germany in terms of exports of goods, but also the US exported more products during 2012. DIW is one of the leading economic research institutions […]

Brazil: A strategic partner for the EU

Brazil is one of the largest democracies of the world, and the offshore oil findings of the past few years, have helped the country become not only self-sufficient in hydrocarbons but also draw millions of its people out of poverty. The country is grouped by OECD to the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), constituting the […]

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