“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown It is now official the Banana Wars are now at an end. The protracted – 16 years – trade dispute over bananas between the European Union (EU), Latin American countries and the United States is now officially over. The Banana Wars, as they have come to be known even if somewhat inaccurately because while banana are the
By: Ainsley Brown The European Union (EU) voted this week to continue the anti-dumping duties it put on certain Chinese and Vietnamese footwear imported in the EU. In a previous post, I speculated that the EU would vote to discontinue the tariffs – boy was I ever wrong. And the EU’s decision has not gone unnoticed in the EU and
By: Ainsley Brown The European Union (EU) last week rejected a plan that called for the extension of duties placed on Chinese and Vietnamese footwear. While a bit of a setback for Trade Commissioner, Baroness Ashton, the vote was far from a clear rebuke of her wishes to see the duties extended for a further 15 months. The Anti-dumping Committee
By: Ainsley Brown Could the longest running trade dispute in World Trade Organization (WTO) history be coming to an end? If newspaper reports are to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt them, then the 16 year old trade war could be very close to ending. At the center of this row is the Banana – yes the
By: Ainsley Brown Is the aid given to Airbus by the governments of Germany, the UK and France in violation of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) subsidies agreement? The answer to this question is expected to be known by the parties today when the WTO is expected to hand down its confidential ruling to the parties. Confidential rulings are part
By: Ainsley Brown In a judicial review case in the UK, a small importer of low alcohol sparkling “wine” was told by the court that it could no longer market its products as such. And why? It did not meet the European regulations for minimum alcohol content. According to the regulations to legally qualify as wine a drink has to