International trade [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Summary:

The European Union’s international trade has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, broken supply chains, the growth of protectionism in many regions and, most recently, from Russia’s war on Ukraine. The United States' trade policy towards China, which is aimed at curbing the authoritarian country’s growing power, has exacerbated the fragmentation of trade. The United States has adopted the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive green subsidy programme which analysts and politicians say may lower the competitiveness of some European clean-tech products. The EU is debating how to respond to the Act, including with the envisaged proposal of a Net-Zero Industry Act, setting a number of clean-tech objectives for 2030. The work of the new EU US Trade and Technology Council has so far made limited progress in resolving the trade spat. This note offers links to a series of recent commentaries and reports from major international think tanks and research institutes on international trade policy.

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