China-EU solar panel trade dispute: Rhetoric versus reality
Simon Evenett | 7 June 2013
Trade,
Blog | Tags:
Antidumping,
Energy,
Renewables,
Subsidies
This article was first published on VoxEU.org and is republished with permission. Following a complaint lodged on 25 July 2012 by EU Pro Sun, an association representing around 20 EU-based producers of solar panels and components, the European Commission initiated an investigation into potential Chinese
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Green Economy – Beware of Merchants of Doubt
Stephen Boucher | 17 April 2013
Fiscal,
Blog | Tags:
Green Growth,
Subsidies
Those who oppose change involving powerful economic sectors have long ago found an effective tactic: instilling doubt in the guise of reasonable arguments. A recent manifestation of this tactic is the claim that so-called ‘green jobs’ are too expensive and in fact destroy “real” jobs.
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Resource Scarcity, Export Restrictions and the Multilateral Trading System
Gilles Carbonnier | 10 April 2013
Trade,
Blog | Tags:
Commodities,
Protectionism,
WTO
The turn of the millennium marked a shift towards higher commodity prices and greater price volatility, as a result of high demand for natural resources from emerging economies combined with export restrictions and financial speculation. A recent Chatham House report highlights that, over the past
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The Case for an International Tax Organisation
Peter Dietsch and
Thomas Rixen | 19 March 2013
Fiscal,
Blog | Tags:
Tax Competition,
Taxes
Capital mobility entails fiscal interdependence. Since the abolition of capital controls in the 1960s and 1970s, and following the widespread abolition of withholding taxes in the wake of the first move in this direction by the Reagan administration in 1984, fiscal interdependence has turned from
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Sense & nonsense in end of year reviews
Simon Evenett | 21 January 2013
Fiscal,
Trade,
Blog | Tags:
Forecasting
The turn of every calendar year witnesses a spate of reviews by pundits in the media. For a columnist, these reviews are an attractive vehicle, ideally drawing upon events from the previous 12 months and combining them with insights into developments relating to the next
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“What’s it for?” – Moral responsibility in an age of globalization
Jean-Pierre Lehmann | 2 December 2012
Trade,
Blog | Tags:
Financial Markets,
G20,
WTO
Several years ago, I was approached by an Indian student following a lecture I had given on globalization and the interdependence of markets through cross-border flows of goods, services, ideas, knowledge, science and people. His question was: “But what’s it for?” In the late 20th/early
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Why a financial transaction tax is good for your pension
Avinash Persaud | 23 October 2012
Fiscal,
Blog | Tags:
Financial Markets,
Financial Transaction Tax
Before the end of 2012, it is likely that 9 EU Member countries will invoke the “Enhanced Co-operation Procedure” and move ahead with a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), that, if it had broad coverage of financial instruments and players would raise over USD$30bn, providing a
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Europe’s fiscal blind spot
Stephen Boucher | 23 October 2012
Fiscal,
Blog | Tags:
Carbon Taxes,
Climate,
Taxes
Smarter taxes on energy and emissions to reduce public deficits As European governments desperately try to plug public deficits, restore competitiveness, employment and growth, the tendency would seem to be towards less environmental policies. What if more environmental protection and putting a price on pollution
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Solidarity beyond taxation
Knut Bergmann | 13 October 2012
Fiscal,
Blog | Tags:
Philanthropy,
Wealth Taxes
„Coercion doesn’t create good will” is a wise proverb – occasionally referred to as patriarchal. With a synonym for this adjective being patronizing, it is particularly fitting for the proposal that recently hit German headlines: to bolster public finances shaken by the Euro crisis with
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Resisting the perils of protectionism
Jean-Pierre Lehmann | 31 July 2012
Trade,
Blog | Tags:
G20,
Protectionism,
WTO
We live in highly perilous times. The resurgence of protectionism and the breakdown of the tenuous global trade peace represent some of the greatest perils. On the basis of current trends, such an outcome seems inevitable. It is simply a question of when. While alarmists
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