Hospodářské noviny | What awaits Síkela if he gets a trade portfolio in the Commission?

Instead of the expected energy portfolio, the Czech nominee for European Commissioner Jozef Síkela could get foreign trade. He would have at his disposal the bureaucratic apparatus of the Directorate General for International Trade, numbering some 700 employees, which is above average by Brussels standards. What could the mandate of the next Trade Commissioner entail? And what obstacles will he have to deal with? Filip Křenek, an analyst at EUROPEUM Institute, commented for Hospodářské noviny.

The new trade commissioner will also have to balance efforts to preserve the international trading order through reform of the long-paralysed World Trade Organisation while making full use of the arsenal of trade defence instruments. One example from the pen of the Directorate General for International Trade that could fall to Sikel is retaliatory tariffs against Chinese electric cars, which the Czech Republic and some other EU states have so far been rather reluctant to take on. 

Read Filip Krenek's full commentary here.

Filip Křenek
Project Coordinator and Analyst