Trade Archive

Earlier this month, Greece blocked a European Union statement at the United Nations that would have criticized China’s human rights record, with Athens saying it was opposed to “unconstructive criticism.” The move prompted a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman to publicly thank Greece “for upholding the correct position.” EU diplomats and rights groups, however, were less than pleased. Human Rights Watch and nine other groups issued a statement saying the EU’s credibility was being battered by its inability to adopt a coherent position on China’s human rights record. In an email interview, Rem Korteweg, head of the Europe in the World […]

After the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, many analysts expected that relations between the European Union and China would enter a honeymoon phase. Facing a protectionist and potentially destabilizing period in U.S. foreign policy, Europe and China would necessarily have to cooperate more closely on issues ranging from climate change to trade, in order to head off threats to the very future of globalization. The recent EU-China summit, taking place the day after Trump’s announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, would have been the natural occasion to showcase this new alignment, which would represent […]

In July, according to spokespeople for Thailand’s government, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will come to Washington for a White House visit. It promises to be a substantial diplomatic and reputational boost for both Prayuth, who led the coup in May 2014 that deposed Thailand’s most recent elected government, and the junta running Thailand, which remains a U.S. treaty ally. Former President Barack Obama did not offer Prayuth a White House invitation, although Obama did meet with him as part of a summit in California of Southeast Asian leaders in February 2016. The Thai junta repeatedly expressed anger at the Obama […]

“Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” President Donald Trump told a cheering crowd of Cuban exiles in Miami on June 16. That declaration was not quite true, since there was no single deal to cancel. President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba included a series of bilateral agreements on issues of mutual interest and five packages of regulatory changes to the U.S. embargo that Obama made unilaterally in order to boost travel and trade. Trump’s new policy, embodied in a Presidential Memorandum, partially closes two holes that Obama punched in the embargo. First, Trump’s […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Argentina and Mexico earlier this month in advance of the G-20 summit meeting scheduled to take place in Hamburg in July. While discussing trade and investment between Latin America and Europe, she also offered a subtle rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump, extolling the virtues of the Paris climate agreement and cooperation in an “interconnected world.” In an email interview, Dr. Claudia Zilla, head of research for the Americas at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, discusses Germany’s current engagement with Latin America and the areas in which it could deepen. […]

President Donald Trump’s protectionist “America First” trade policy has stoked significant fear about the prospect of a trade war. Although certain aspects of his trade agenda so far have temporarily eased the concerns of business leaders and policymakers, Trump’s decision last week to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement should generate renewed anxiety over the stability of the international trading system. As president, Trump has walked back some of his most aggressive campaign promises on trade, such as imposing a 45 percent tariff on all imports from China. However, in addition to exiting the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trump’s provocative […]

Like the United States before it, China has grown past the narrow pursuit of short-term gains as its economic influence has expanded across the Eastern Hemisphere, if not the world, for most of this century. Emboldened by this growth, but also compelled to look for new markets to supplement its own cooling economy, China is now using this influence to build a global economic network for trade and development, with itself as the driver. The grand “One Belt, One Road” initiative, known as OBOR, which President Xi Jinping unveiled in 2013, has been touted as the blueprint for this new […]

Last month, at a ceremony in Toulouse, France, the French firm ATR officially gave four passenger planes to Iran, and the planes were flown to Tehran the following day. The ATR 72-600s are the first of a 20-plane deal made with the firm following the 2015 nuclear deal and lifting of sanctions, according to the Associated Press, and their purchase is part of a larger effort by Iran to update its commercial fleet. In an email interview, Bijan Khajehpour, managing partner of the Vienna-based consulting firm Atieh International, describes the current needs of Iran’s aviation sector as well as the […]

When Donald Trump became the U.S. president in January, it was not clear if his foreign and national security policy would reflect the unorthodox ideas of his campaign or whether once in power he would move closer to traditional Republican positions. Trump’s just-completed foreign trip did not fully clarify that, but his prickly, almost hostile interaction with America’s NATO allies demonstrated that a foreign policy and national security revolution may be coming. As Ivo Daalder, the former U.S. envoy to NATO, put it, “This seems to be the end of an era.” Should such a transformation occur, the clearest signs […]

MEXICO CITY — The lengthy and tumultuous prelude to talks between the United States, Mexico and Canada over the North American Free Trade Agreement has in many ways epitomized the chaos and contradictions of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump has demonized the 23-year-old pact as the “worst trade deal, maybe ever,” but officials from his administration have hailed its potential to create a “regional powerhouse” through further economic integration. The confusion notwithstanding, Trump has forced policymakers to reflect on an agreement that is vital to the interests of all three NAFTA members. But he has also forced them to consider the […]