Trump’s Trade Policy, BREXIT, Corona Dynamics, EU Crisis and Declining Multilateralism

EU External Trade Policy

The external trade policy of the EU impinges on nearly one fifth of world trade. Hence, an understanding of the principles and practice of the Union's trade policy, the Common Commercial Policy (CCP), is of vital importance to any student of the global trade environment. Ongoing research on the CCP has addressed both broad themes and detailed aspects of the Union's trade policy provides insight...

Trade creating free trade areas and the undermining of multilateralism

This paper indicates that the consequences of regional trade agreements for the world trade system may be deceiving—an arrangement’s apparent virtue may constitute the source of its drawback. In a model where governments have political, as well as economic, motivations, I show that a free trade area induces its members to reduce protection against the non-members, and to do so sufficiently deep...

Multilateralism is in Crisis [1]

There is a crisis in multilateralism.  No major new binding rules relating to international commerce have come into force in more than 20 years.  Demands by some nations for rules in new areas are not being met. The negotiations in the WTO of trade rules and the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to devise rules restricting the annual emissions of greenhouse ga...

Trade Crisis? What Trade Crisis?∗

We investigate the dramatic 2008–2009 trade collapse using microdata from a small open economy, Belgium. Belgian trade essentially fell because of reduced quantities and unit prices, rather than fewer firms involved in international transactions, fewer trading partners per firm, or fewer products traded. Our difference-in-difference results point to a fall in the demand for tradables – especial...

EU Enlargement: The New Member States and Agricultural Trade Potentials