economy
So far, there has not been a lot of discussion on African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in Europe and Germany. Generally speaking, AfCFTA is welcomed as an African initiative. But there is a lack of discussion as to potential pitfalls of the AfCFTA.
The ultimate aim of the webinar was to get a better understanding on how European policies must be crafted in order to support the realization of increased economic integration and prosperity within Africa. How will AfCFTA reshape economic relations between ...
read more "Webinar on the Political Economy of the African Continental Free Trade Area"
read more "Webinar on the Political Economy of the African Continental Free Trade Area"
Economist and journalist Martin Khor, whose life was cut short by cancer on 1 April 2020, was a standout figure in the struggle for a radical transformation of global economic relations. Born into a middle-class family in Penang (Malaysia), he initially carved out a career in public administration and in academia before taking up his life's mission, the fight for a just new world economic order, as the Research Director of the Consumers' Association of Penang and from 1990 onwards as the Director of the Third World Network (TWN). ...
read more "Martin Khor – a life spent fighting for a just global economy"
read more "Martin Khor – a life spent fighting for a just global economy"
When the facade of a 'slowly but surely' approach results in a missed opportunityIn an editorial published on 12 April 2020, the Institut Rousseau warned of the illusions and delusions surrounding the idea – which was on everyone's lips at the time – of 'coronabonds' and a European funding mechanism. We wrote: "the main benefit of eurobonds ... would be to add a budgetary funding capacity exceeding that of all [EU] Member States taken individually. This means assuming that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and that more investments would be allowed in ...
read more "The European recovery plan"
read more "The European recovery plan"
Comments on Germany's upcoming EU Council Presidency against the backdrop of the planned EU-MERCOSUR trade agreementRed apricots
In his latest novel, Serotonin, French writer Michel Houellebecq focuses on love and agriculture. The novel's first-person narrator, Florent-Claude Labrouste, leaves his girlfriend, quits his job as an advisor to the French Ministry of Agriculture and embarks on a road trip into his past. His journey leads him to his old college friend Aymeric, the only one in his class who decided to actually become a farmer after studying agricultural ...
read more "Of humans and cattle"
read more "Of humans and cattle"
Time to Rethink Mobility!Every sector of the economy has felt the impact of the coronavirus crisis, and car manufacturing is no exception. There are 12 million EU workers employed in the automotive industry, either directly in production or in parts manufacturing, and the sector accounts for 7% of the union’s GDP.[1] If we look at direct automotive employment as a share of total manufacturing across a selection of EU member states, we can see just how significant the car industry is (see graphic, below).
The necessary restructuring of the sector will ...
read more "The European Automotive Sector"
read more "The European Automotive Sector"
The coronavirus crisis is demonstrating the failure of existing trade policy. Goods that are in particular demand during the pandemic – such as protective masks, medicines and medical equipment – are being hijacked, immediately after coming off a plane, by cowboys on the wild-west global market or squirrelled away by rogue elements.
This wild-west mentality is particularly evident in the current crisis, but it also forms part of an international commercial framework geared towards free trade, where policy, dressed up in ideological terms, is tailored to ...
read more "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
read more "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
Promoting coordinated action by European working-class organisationsThe Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is an internationally operating non-profit organisation for civic education affiliated with Germany’s Left Party. It is a discussion forum for progressive political alternatives and a centre for critical thinking and research both in Germany and throughout the world. The Brussels Office operates as a think tank reflecting on European and international issues affecting contemporary society.
Objectives
The tender is for a service to...
read more "Call for Tenders: Brochure on International Production Chains"
read more "Call for Tenders: Brochure on International Production Chains"
The WTO launched its World Trade Report 2019 on the future of the service industry at its annual Public Forum, but fierce debates during the event prove that the WTO is almost completely “out of service” due to ongoing trade wars as well as US attacks on Special & Differential Treatment.
While the hype around e-commerce was the major theme of the World Trade Report and the lynchpin of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s hopes for future growth in world trade in 2018, this year’s report focuses on trade in services as the ...
read more "The WTO: Out of Service, but Obsessed with Services"
read more "The WTO: Out of Service, but Obsessed with Services"
The story of the European Union (EU) is often told as a tale of peace and economic prosperity. However, it can also be framed in terms of rapid growth in the transport sector, which is firmly in the grip of ‘fossil capitalism’. The invention at the heart of this mobility model, which is causing widespread environmental destruction, is the internal combustion engine (Candeias et al. 2011; Balsmeyer/Knierim 2018; Haas 2018).
A glance at greenhouse gas balances makes this clear, as the transport sector was responsible for roughly 25% of EU-wide emissions in 2015. ...
read more "The European Car Lobby"
read more "The European Car Lobby"
All is not well with the G20, which lacks democratic legitimacy, is hopelessly divided and is also losing its political influence. The main reason for this is the conflict between the US and China, the EU and the rest of the world. So how should we interpret the predictably surprising outcomes of the meeting of G20 leaders in Osaka, Japan, with respect to the role played by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), US trade wars and EU strategy?
In the run-up to the G20 summit, most of the mainstream media predicted another battle in the US trade ...
read more "The G20 in Osaka: all quiet on the Eastern front"
read more "The G20 in Osaka: all quiet on the Eastern front"