@stephhoneytrade
Digital trade, Asia-Pacific, WTO, agriculture, inclusion. Roles: APEC Business Advisory Council, Trade Advisor @ NZ Asia Institute Akld University, Chair of NZHEA, consultancy; former NZ trade negotiator
A very good piece. “The fact that many men believe they no longer even have to pretend to respect women in order to participate in public life makes it unlikely that anything will change anytime soon.”
The new US trade deals with Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia & Thailand make for a compelling read - for @foreignpolicy.com I outline how, with these accords, Trump could force partners to invest in the US, give Washington a say over domestic affairs and decouple from China
New IELP post from me: "Beware the 'Securitization' of Trade Policy"
tl;dr: Security issues have always been part of trade policy discussions, but things have ratcheted up recently. I'm concerned that people are getting security wrong, which has negative implications for making good trade policy.
The EU’s other recent digital provisions (eg with New Zealand and in the DTA with Singapore) similarly don’t refer to “content” - but nor do they include the definitional nod to services. Interesting!
In case it’s helpful: there’s a pretty broad security exception in the UK-India CETA (Art 28.2) (although with a proviso that this can’t constitute a disguised restriction on trade) which applies to the digital trade chapter - which in turn
Is pretty detailed, although it excludes data governance.
🎉 The @WTO #FisheriesSubsidies Agreement is now in force–a big step to curb subsidies threatening #SustDev.
But the work isn’t over yet. It’s crucial to implement the agreement & conclude additional rules to #StopFundingOverfishing.
🔗 www.iisd.org/articles/sta...
Ahead of the start of #BirdOfTheYear tomorrow, I've made a Bluesky feed which should gather all #boty content. Feel free to like/pin it! @forestandbird.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Singapore, UAE and other small nations to launch trade partnership on.ft.com/3JBZgk3
Must See TV: PIIE’s Adam S. Posen on why Trump's tariffs won't achieve stated goals www.piie.com/newsroom/sho...
Trump's very bad trade deal with Europe www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
We need to talk about cross-border flows of non-personal data!
Because:
i) these are increasingly critical for digital trade; and
ii) the number of measures affecting their flow has increased five-fold in the last decade
See our latest and greatest on this topic
👇
www.oecd.org/en/publicati...
To spell it out:
precovid - no health differences between the group that subsequently caught covid and those that did not.
after covid - health differences between the group that known to have caught covid and the group not.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Insane
They say it can’t be done, but here we are, California is generated 106% of California’s entire state electricity demand from renewables.
California has a population bigger that 154 other countries around the world. It’s the 4th largest economy, in the world.
Let that sink in.
#energysky #greensky
My take on today’s UK-US trade deal. The UK is a small weak country. It does what small weak countries do, which is to escape the bully, to pay the Dane-geld.
Standing up for the multilateral rules-based trading system will have to be left for others.
China's President Xi Jinping called for stronger ties with Vietnam on trade and supply chains amid disruptions caused by US tariffs, as he kicked off a three-nation trip to Southeast Asia in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi reut.rs/3Gasvcg
This is the 7th WTO complaint this year. On pace for the most since 2018.
Bad news (h/t @emmafarge.bsky.social): The US is suspending its WTO contributions. After the EU member states (together 31.1 %) it was the second largest contributor (11.4%). China contributes 11.2, U.K. 3.7%. www.reuters.com/world/us-sus...
Almost half of Republican men now believe that women should return to their traditional roles in society (up from 28 percent in 2022)
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/o...
WTO nerds corner.
3 new papers:
1. For the first time, 72 WTO members want a General Council decision (Feb 18–19) to add their agreement on e-commerce to the package of WTO agreements (via Annex 4).
They’ll probably fail
Proposal ➡️ docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages...
Explanation ⬇️
The entire point of trade agreements is to mitigate this uncertainty. It's been wildly successful for 80 years at generating growth, wealth, & development around the world. Yes, trade/globalization have distributional costs exist. No, we don't want to dismantle load-bearing institutions like this.
key point from Martin Wolf: even if Trump's tariffs don't go in he has blown up the policy certainty that underpins all supply chains that include the US www.ft.com/content/f097...
Trump treats trade agreements as mere suggestions, which he can ignore if he feels like it. That's bad for business paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-to-dam...
Trump admin through 1 week:
- Pauses all federal grants & loans
- Purges Justice Department career staff, halts civil rights cases
- Purges at least 15 inspectors general
- Suspends USAID staff while halting foreign aid
- Threatens Colombia, Denmark, Mexico, Canada & many more w/ tariffs & sanctions
IELP blog post: Trump's Trade Policy, Day 1: Just a Memo http://dlvr.it/THTSXP
If you're looking for the text of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement (which takes a yr. to be in effect, but the U.S. is treating as immediate): it is here. Also cuts off US funding to the UNFCCC and US int'l climate finance. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Indeed, yes!
Sorry, broken link - trying again
www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/art...
The Hinrich Foundation has published lots of articles on CPTPP, including a piece of mine on the current CPTPP General Review www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/art..., and this great recent commentary on accessions from Dr Deborah Elms www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/wp/...
