Yesterday we commented the 30th Trade Monitoring Report on G20 trade measures of the World Trade Organization (WTO), explaining how most of restrictions to trade recently introduced by G20 countries (including the European Union), have been justified under the guise of measures aimed at protecting the environment. After the disputed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a new duty applicable in the EU on imports of selected goods due to the carbon emissions produced during their production which has already caused the reaction of countries like India, it is now the turn of the new EUDR - European Union Deforestation-free Regulation, (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115), in effect since June 2023, but with most of its provisions applicable only from end of December 2024. The new EU regulation is creating panic among African countries that produce agricultural commodities, including the Ethiopian coffee exporters, due to the strict due diligence rules that EU importers are called to observe in selecting their suppliers, which expose them to a risk to incur in sanctions up to 4% of their total annual Union-wide turnover, with possible confiscation of goods and exclusions up to 12 months from public procurement processes and from access to public funding, including tendering procedures, grants and concessions.

Read more...

The 20th edition of ‘The EU Industrial Research & Development (R&D) Investment Scoreboard’ published by the European Commission shows that in 2022 there was a peak in investment in Research and Development (R&D) by companies worldwide, totalling EUR 1,249.7 billion (EUR 141 billion more than in 2021). The report explains that to drive such investments are mainly European and Japanese companies, while US and Chinese companies invested less compared to the previous year (Figure 1). The report also notes that the top 50 Scoreboard companies (23 US, 10 EU, 5 Chinese, and 5 Japanese) invested EUR 488 billion in 2022, accounting for 39.1% of total R&D investment worldwide, whereas the top 10 account for 17.7% of the total. This shows that companies that mostly invest in R&D are big companies, a trend which has persisted over the past two decades, with four sectors (ICT producers, ICT services, health and automotive), that have been responsible for more than three quarters of R&D investment. The EU has maintained a lead position in automotive R&D investment as well as in more traditional sectors, while the US has invested heavily in ICT-related sectors and health. On the other hand, China had a substantial number of newcomers with fast growing R&D investments in the ICT and health sectors, reaching the second rank in the Scoreboard in terms of number of companies and – slightly ahead of the EU – in total R&D investment.

Read more...