World
EU Commission targets WTO’s key rule in push to rebalance China trade
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As the EU’s trade deficit with China keeps widening, the European Commission wants to revisit the WTO rule requiring members to extend the lowest tariff granted to one partner to all, known as the “Most Favoured Nation” principle under global trade rules.
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The status is important as it has shaped trade for decades and allowed countries like China to benefit from low tariffs even as it transitions from an emerging to a sophisticated market as the world’s second largest economy.
With this new proposal, Brussels would link low tariffs to reciprocal market access. The move comes as European companies face persistent barriers in China, which has grown it trade surplus with the world and the EU despite calls to rebalance the relationship.
“The low tariffs should be matched with equal access to your [a trading partner’s] markets,” Šefčovič said on Friday after a meeting of EU trade ministers in Cyprus, adding: “I think that there has to be fairness on both sides.”
EU’s goods trade deficit with China keeps ballooning
The issue is set to surface at the WTO’s ministerial conference in Cameroon in March, one year after President Donald Trump jolted global trade with sweeping unilateral tariffs that challenged the multilateral system and have now been struck down by court.
WTO reform will dominate the gathering as policymakers grapple with a geo-economic landscape shaped by increasingly nationalist trade policies in both the US and China.
The “Most Favoured Nation” rule was designed to prevent discrimination among trading partners. But Brussels now sees it as contributing to structural imbalances with China.
“When this principle was embedded into the international trade law and WTO practices, simply the world was different,” Šefčovič said. “The GDP of China represented around 5 to 6%. Today we are at the level of 20%.”
The EU’s goods trade deficit with China widened to €359.3 billion in 2025.
Critics have long argued that Beijing has not fully adhered to WTO practices since it joined the institution in 2001, citing extensive Chinese government state subsidies. Since, its economy has grown to become the second largest in the world only behind the US.
“The past three decades global trade has changed profoundly. Some WTO members have dramatically expanded their share of global trade, while keeping their own markets relatively closed,” Commissioner Šefčovič said on Friday. “And at the same time, state support and non-market policies have multiplied.”
The “Most Favoured Nation” rule has also been called into question by the deals struck over the past year by the US with trading partners under the threat of steeper tariffs.
The EU-US agreement concluded last July sets 15% US tariffs on EU goods, while the EU committed to granting preferential treatment with zero tariffs on US imports.
Still, the trade agreements announced by the Trump administration have not been notified to the WTO, even though members are required to do so to allow others to assess their compliance with WTO rules.
The tariffs have also been declared ilegal by the US Supreme Court on the basis that the president exceeded his mandate by invoking emergency laws to push them throw. The ruling adds uncertainty to an already complex geopolitical context.
President Trump said Iran had agreed to the “highest level” inspections, hours after an Iranian official said there were “no detailed discussions on the nuclear issue,” as the two sides continued to present different narratives of their latest talks.
World
Turkey detains over 200 suspects, including alleged ISIS militants, in sweeping raid ahead of NATO summit
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Turkish authorities reportedly detained more than 200 people, including suspected ISIS-linked militants, in a sweeping Tuesday raid in capital Ankara ahead of a July 7-8 NATO summit.
The raid came after Turkish authorities issued detention orders for 241 suspects, 209 of whom were taken into custody, The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the office of Turkey’s chief prosecutor.
Among the 209 detained, 56 were allegedly ISIS militants, according to the AP. This comes after Turkish authorities said they detained 125 ISIS members in December.
The detention operations occurred just two weeks before a planned NATO summit in Ankara on July 7 that President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
TURKEY’S NATO ROLE UNDER SCRUTINY AMID NEW REPORT ON HAMAS, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD TIES
President Donald Trump greets Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 13, 2025, to support ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo/Pool)
Other militants scooped up were 35 alleged members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, which a Turkish statement described as “a far‑left group known for armed attacks and assassinations in Turkey,” according to the AP.
The ISIS-combating operations demonstrate the terrorist group’s ongoing activity in the region, showing the group is still functioning despite the U.S. campaign during Trump’s first term to eliminate the group’s caliphate and its control of large swaths of territory in the Middle East.
Iraqi government forces celebrate while holding an Islamis Sate (IS) group flag after they claimed they have gained complete control of the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, on January 26, 2015 near the town of Muqdadiyah. (YOUNIS AL-BAYATI/AFP via Getty Images)
In recent years, ISIS has spread into the African continent, prompting a strong response from the U.S. In May, Trump authorized a series of strikes in Nigeria to combat the group.
PENTAGON SLASHES NATO COMBAT COMMITMENTS AS TRUMP PUSHES EUROPE TO DEFEND ITSELF
A May 16 strike killed ISIS leader Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, who was the group’s second-in-command globally.
U.S. and Nigerian forces conducted kinetic strikes against ISIS fighters in northeastern Nigeria on May 17, 2026, AFRICOM said. (X/U.S. Africa Command)
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“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social after the strike. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
The group’s renewed activity also includes a call to supporters to make attacks on U.S. soil during the World Cup.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Euronews with AFP
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Two whales were killed off the coast of Iceland overnight Sunday, two days after commercial hunting resumed, local media and animal rights activists reported Monday.
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The kill ends a two-year pause and marks the first catches since 2023.
Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported that two fin whales were killed. The fin whale is the second largest animal on Earth after the blue whale.
Before the vessels set off on Friday, a protester had attached himself to one of the masts in the port of Reykjavik, but climbed down and was escorted away by police.
Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only three countries that still openly permit whaling, despite international condemnation from the public and animal welfare organisations.
Iceland cancelled its whale hunt over the past two years, partly because economic problems had cut demand and the industry was not deemed profitable enough.
“The first fin whale deaths in Iceland’s hunt this year are devastating,” said Joanna Swabe, European senior public affairs director for animal rights group Humane World for Animals.
“Iceland has killed more than 1,000 fin whales in the past two decades — not only the second largest animal on the planet but also a species classified as globally vulnerable to extinction,” Swabe said in a statement.
Iceland’s government has said it is planning to introduce a bill aimed at banning whaling this autumn.
The International Whaling Commission banned the commercial killing of whales in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals.
Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute has recommended that no more than 150 fin whales are caught in the 2026 season.
That represents a 28-percent drop on the annual quota it recommended for the period 2018–2025, it said.
The institute has set an annual catch of 168 animals for the minke whale hunt this year, a 23-percent drop on 2018-2025.
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