This article is published in association with United Nations. Garment factories around the world which have signed up to implement UN-backed labour standards may simply stop investing in improving working conditions, due to widespread uncertainty over tariff levels, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Threatened or actual tariff increases are largely focused on taxing imports […]UN-backed labour standards at risk as tariff uncertainty grows
July 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. Garment factories around the world which have signed up to implement UN-backed labour standards may simply stop investing in improving working conditions, due to widespread uncertainty over tariff levels, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Threatened or actual tariff increases are largely focused on taxing imports […]EU countermeasures on US steel and aluminium tariffs explained
March 12, 2025 by 1 Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. On 12 March, the United States imposed tariffs of up to 25% on imports of steel, aluminium, and certain products containing steel and aluminium from the European Union and other trading partners. In response, the Commission is launching a series of countermeasures to protect […]Global trade to hit record $33 trillion in 2024, but uncertainties over tariffs loom
December 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. Global trade is poised to hit a record $33 trillion in 2024, showcasing remarkable resilience despite persistent economic and geopolitical challenges, a UN report revealed on Thursday. However, concerns loom for 2025, where the risks include escalating trade wars, geopolitical tensions and shifting policies, clouding the outlook. […]Commission proposal to impose tariffs on imports of battery electric vehicles from China obtains necessary support from EU Member States
October 4, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission’s proposal to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China has obtained the necessary support from EU Member States for the adoption of tariffs. This represents another step towards the conclusion of the Commission’s anti-subsidy […]EU and U.S. agree to suspend all tariffs linked to the Airbus and Boeing disputes
March 8, 2021 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The EU and U.S. agreed today to suspend all retaliatory tariffs on EU and U.S. exports imposed in the Airbus and Boeing disputes for a four-month period. The suspension allows both sides to focus on resolving this long-running dispute. It provides an important boost […]G7: A serious setback hardly avoided in iconic Biarritz
August 26, 2019 by 1 Comment
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
July 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Who is to pay for Trump’s trade war against China?
June 13, 2019 by 1 Comment
The US President Donald Trump and the big American tech companies have raised the stakes this week in the ongoing Pacific war. Japanese and South Korean tech giants have also joined the Americans in black listing Huawei and other Chinese companies in an all out war against China. As expected, Japan supports the US policy […]How trade tariffs could help combat climate change
May 16, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Shang-Jin Wei As Australia heads toward a federal election on May 18, the national debate on cutting carbon dioxide emissions is heating up. Yet the discussion highlights the limits of what Australia or any other individual country can […]Trump wants to implicate China in US attacks against global order
May 13, 2019 by 1 Comment
Global trade prospects and order is in the hands of a New York bankrupt realtor who is addicted to risk. He doesn’t care if his moves in the trade negotiations harm his own country, as long as the spectators applaud. On Thursday 9 May the American President Donald Trump didn’t hesitate to hike import tariffs […]Trade with the United States: Council authorises negotiations on elimination of tariffs for industrial goods and on conformity assessment
April 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Council. The Council today approved mandates for the Commission to open negotiations with the United States on two agreements: a trade agreement limited to the elimination of tariffs for industrial goods only, excluding agricultural products; an agreement on conformity assessment that would have as its […]Why protectionism spells trouble for global economic growth
March 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The Sino-American trade conflict may be resolved soon
February 25, 2019 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Preferential tariffs to help Western Sahara to develop
January 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Wednesday, Parliament backed a proposal to lower tariffs in the territory of Western Sahara to the same level as Moroccan tariffs, to benefit local populations. The Parliament gave the green light by 444 votes to 167 and 68 abstentions, to extend the preferential […]The China-US trade deal will be signed on time; the path is set
December 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The China-US trade truce agreed upon by the US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has just prolonged the uncertainties haunting all and every world market. Stock exchanges on Monday went up and then on Tuesday fell on the news. The respite was struck last Saturday between the two leaders, in the […]The new North America trade deal USMCA punishes German cars
October 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Security spillovers from Trump’s trade wars: China, Germany prepare for global disorder
October 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
US President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade strategy has now gone past the economic landscape and touched security issues. There are strong signs that next month’s security meeting between US and China may be cancelled. If this is the case, the two largest economies of the earth may enter uncharted waters. Until now, they have been […]Trump aims trade offensive solely to China, renews truce with EU
September 13, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]The US-Mexico trade deal a threat for others, Trump to single out China, Europe
August 30, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]US-China trade war at point of no return: Washington’s demands go beyond tariffs
August 27, 2018 by Leave a Comment
It seems the US-China trade conflict, if not full scale trade war, is entering the phase of no return. Nothing will be as before in the economic and otherwise relations between the two largest economies of the world. Washington appears ready to push its cause to the end, while Beijing still pretends not to understand […]Trump fines China with $50 billion a year plus some more…
August 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The New Yorker President of ‘America first’, Donald Trump, has figured out the cash China has to pay the US every year, in order to continue exporting her products to the largest market of the globe. It’s something like the ‘protection’ cash New York shopkeepers have to pay the gangs in order to get on […]Skeptic France about Trump-Juncker trade deal favoring German cars; EU’s unity in peril
July 30, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The Trump-Juncker trade truce and pledge for ‘zero tariffs’ seems to have left everybody happy, especially Berlin, but the French said don’t uncork ‘les champagnes’, at least not yet. In detail, last Wednesday, the American President Donald Trump and the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met in the White House and struck an agreement about […]The EU sides with China against the US; but has Germany capitulated to America?
July 23, 2018 by 3 Comments
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
July 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Trump’s MAGA policy remains unchanged as EU warns to impose additional retaliation tariffs on US products
July 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
EU threatened the US last Friday with tariff measures on 294 billion dollars of US exports in case Donald Trump’s administration imposes import tariffs on cars and car parts. The US president seems to be doing whatever possible to cause trade wars all over the world. The Old Continent will continue attempting to persuade Mr […]Trump goes ahead with plan to undo globalization; targets China and EU
June 28, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Harley-Davidson motor cycles is the first American iconic company to suffer in more than one way from Trump’s action aimed at reversing the world economic order. It’s a matter of fact by now that the ‘America first’ President seems decided to overturn globalization. In doing so, apart from causing global disorder, he will embarrass a […]The US calls off globalization, targets Germany. Paris offer to Berlin comes at a cost
June 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]EU adopts retaliative measures in response to US steel and aluminum tariffs
June 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Germany takes cover from Trump in Eurozone and decides to pay for it
June 14, 2018 by 7 Comments
Nobody in Germany doubts it any more that Donald Trump’s America is not a friendly country and market any more, or a guarantor of European security, as was the case for the last 70 years after WWII. To ward off any confusion about that, the German ambassador to the US made a clear statement. Peter […]France-Germany: Divided in Europe, USA united in…Iran
May 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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’
May 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Is the advent of nationalism to destroy economic neo-liberalism?
April 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
All major stock exchanges suffered severe losses on the first day of this week not because Tesla and facebook stocks are falling, or even because the Chinese announced on Sunday night their retaliative import tariffs of 15% to 25% on 128 US products; all that was known and probably discounted for during the past few […]Trump’s trade wars: Aiming at long term gains for America
March 26, 2018 by 1 Comment
Last Friday, President Donald Trump again surprised the world by imposing new import tariffs on Chinese products of a value of $60 billion and deferring the imposition of import super levies on European Union steel and aluminum for 1st May. In the latter case he also postponed the new tariffs for another six exporting countries […]
