On average, the United States and the European Union (EU) apply relatively low tariffs. How do the levels vary by industry group ?

China dominates global trade with 730 products for which it accounts for more than half of global exports in 2023, far more than the EU, the United States, and Japan.

China, in addition to being one of the leading producers of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, has also become the largest importer, thanks to its massive investments worldwide.

The boom in international trade in healthcare products does not date back to the Covid-19 pandemic but to the great multilateral trade opening of the 2000s. Will the protectionist tensions that have been building since 2022 slow this growth?

The automotive sector plays a central role in Donald Trump's declarations on trade deficits and his threats of protectionist measures against the European Union (EU) as well as Canada and Mexico. With a $270 billion motor vehicle trade deficit in 2023, cars are one of the major items, nearly a quarter of the total, in the US trade deficit after consumer goods.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have highlighted the challenges associated with import dependency.

Europe’s competition policy has successfully contained the rise in concentration and excess profits, and the EU should not follow the US in weakening its approach. Instead, the EU needs to strengthen its trade policy to be more assertive on reciprocity in market access and control of industrial subsidies.

Since 2018, the US administration has implemented several measures limiting free trade with China and other countries. Using cross-country data and a general equilibrium model, this column argues that a trade war hurts not only the targeted countries but also the country imposing the tariffs.
Column first published in VOX.

The world trading system is facing an existential crisis. This calls for a significant update of the rulebook, dealing with dissatisfactions regarding negotiation and rules, surveillance, as well as adjudication.

The sharp drop in commodity prices has had a sizeable impact on Latin America's short term growth prospects. The decline in terms of trade has also revealed, once again, the low productivity of the region's economies. Investing in infrastructure could help Latin America simultaneously address these short and long term challenges.