Trade Barriers Report: EU continues to open up markets outside Europe in midst of rising protectionism

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Thanks to the European Union’s successful intervention, European companies generated €8 billion in additional exports in 2019. The high number of new restrictions that hinder EU exports shows however that protectionism has become deeply ingrained in global trade. These are some of the findings […]

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 […]

Barriers to trade: as protectionism rises, EU continues opening up export markets for European firms

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission’s report released today confirms the continuous rise in barriers encountered by European companies in foreign markets. Thanks to the EU’s firm response, 123 such barriers have been eliminated since the beginning of the current Commission mandate, allowing for more than €6 […]

Why protectionism spells trouble for global economic growth

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Jonathan D. Ostry, Deputy Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) It is sometimes alleged that for all the microeconomic distortions that protectionist policies inflict, there can be a silver lining in terms of macroeconomic gains: more jobs, more output and […]

Protectionism doesn’t stand a chance in the age of connectivity

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Hikmet Ersek, President and Chief Executive Officer, Western Union One of the questions I’m asked most frequently as the CEO of a global company – one that operates across more than 200 countries and territories – is: “Am I […]

Draghi to lay his print on long term ECB policies prior to exiting next year

Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, was criticized by major global financial media for insisting to end the easy money policy this December. The argument is that, after ECB’s Governing Council decided at the end of the prosperous 2017 to end its extraordinary monetary policy, the world has become a riskier place. […]

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 […]

EU and China to do more in common if the global scene gets worse

At a time of global trade, and not only, disorder, caused mainly by the US President of ‘America first’ Donald Trump, on 16 July in Beijing Europe and China held their 20th Summit. Both are targets of American trade aggression, but it seems the European Union is not yet ready to decisively join forces with […]

EU and China seize momentum to enhance trade agreements in response to Trump’s administration

The EU-China summit will take place on July 16-17 in Beijing where both parties are going to discuss how to improve their trade and investment relations the moment when Donald Trump’s administration is imposing tariffs all around the world shaking the world and trade order. Chinese and EU leaders have already met in Bulgaria and […]

Trade barriers: EU removes record number in response to surge in protectionism

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The annual report on Trade and Investment Barriers, released today, shows that the European Commission has eliminated the highest number ever of trade barriers faced by EU companies doing business abroad. European exporters reported a major increase in protectionism in 2017. Commenting on the […]

The ECB must extend its money stimulus beyond 2018: Draghi reckoning

Last Thursday, 26 April Mario Draghi, tactfully left it to be understood that Eurozone may not any more grow so fast as we all knew it was doing until recently, and, consequently, the inflation goal of close to 2% may not be achievable. He communicated that by not repeating what he had said on 8 […]

Macron crowned king of Europe in Washington D.C.; just a working meeting with Trump for Merkel

A rare service Donald Trump is currently doing for the Europeans is that he offers them a platform for important common action to be undertaken by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They are both visiting the White House this week, but expect quite different reception from Trump; pompous state […]

Germany resists Macron’s plan for closer and more cohesive Eurozone; Paris and Berlin at odds

Last week, surprising everybody, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France and member of European Central Bank’s Governing Council said that the decision to stop ECB’s extraordinarily accommodating monetary measures this year, is premature. So, according to him, the central bank must continue applying its extra relaxed measures well beyond this year. […]

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 […]

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 […]

China invites the EU to a joint endeavor for free trade and order in the world

The European Union and China are to hold a summit this June, which is expected to shape their joint answer to the American protectionist and other threats. Last weekend, those threats prevented the Spring Meeting of the IMF to renew its commitment to free trade. The US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin alone blocked it. Before […]

“China will strive to enhance the performance of economic growth”, President Xi highlights from the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos

The first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) began with the opening plenary with Xi Jinping yesterday, President of the People’s Republic of China, monopolizing the interest of the global economic status quo convening these days at the Swiss Alps. This was the first time ever a Chinese President accepts the Davos invite and naturally all the […]

Trade protectionism and cartels threaten democracy

Trade protectionism is a very dangerous medicine for economic illnesses. On most occasions it is like a drug that kills the pain and the symptoms but at the same time it dilutes the possibility to cure the illness that causes them. If an economy loses its competitiveness in a certain sector or in the entire […]