Economics & Trade Programme
Research on trade policy, economic statecraft, sanctions and economic security.
The programme examines how governments use trade, financial and industrial policy, and how those decisions affect supply chains, market access and international security.
Research scope
ETP produces policy briefs, analysis and interviews on economic measures used by governments and the security consequences of trade and industrial decisions.
- Sanctions, export controls and countermeasures
- Trade agreements, tariffs and market access
- Critical minerals, industrial policy and supply chains
- Financial infrastructure and economic statecraft
Featured ETP research
Selected publications from ETP analysts. Images, titles and summaries come from the posts themselves and update when new research is published.
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Iraq-Turkey Oil Pipeline Deal: The Hormuz Factor
The Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline deal reveals how the Hormuz shutdown weakened Baghdad’s bargaining power and helped Ankara secure a stake in Kirkuk oil production.
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Botswana, Angola and the Fight Against Synthetic Diamonds
Botswana and Angola face growing competition from synthetic diamonds. Can provenance, branding and De Beers ownership preserve the value of natural diamonds?
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Growing and Getting Poorer: Revenue, Return and Realignment in Afghanistan’s Economy, Five Years On
Executive Summary Afghanistan’s economy grew 4.8% in FY2025 while real income per head fell 5.6%, a divergence explained by the 5.4 million Afghans returned from…
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Turning Mineral Potential into Supply: Colombia and the US
Executive Summary The Colombia-United States (US) memorandum of understanding (MOU) on critical minerals creates a framework for strengthening Colombia’s potential contribution to US supply-chain diversification.…
CISES Sanctions Tracker
The Sanctions Tracker maintains a source-linked record of sanctions, export controls and countermeasures across six jurisdictions. It enables comparison of issuing authorities, targets, types of measures and stated objectives.
It is a research database, not a sanctions-screening or compliance service.
Explore the tracker ↗
ETP leadership
Tasneem Ismail
Programme Director, Economics & Trade Programme
Erin Spellman-Butler
Deputy Programme Director, Economics & Trade Programme
ETP interviews
Interviews on EU–Canada relations, financial infrastructure and critical minerals.
Could Canada Become the EU’s First Associate Member? | Michael McAdoo
Trade relations and the prospects for closer EU–Canada cooperation.
Why Washington Is Fearing Brazil’s Pix system? (It’s Visa)
Brazil’s payment infrastructure and its implications for financial competition.
Europe’s Critical Minerals Problem: What Japan Did Differently
What Europe can learn from Japan’s approach to mineral supply chains.
All ETP publications
Browse research published by the Economics & Trade Programme. This list updates automatically and includes numbered pages of earlier articles.
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The EU should rethink its critical mineral strategy in Africa
Executive summary Introduction An increasing number of African countries have placed restrictions on the export of…
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Scrap Access is Becoming Critical to Mineral Supply Chain Competition
Executive Summary Access to secondary materials is an important dimension of the critical mineral supply chains…
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How Washington Turned the USMCA Review Into a Recurring Extraction Mechanism
Executive Summary On July 1, 2026, the United States declined to extend the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement…
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Looming Giant: China’s CXMT IPO Will Pressure Korean-led Memory Chip Ecosystem
Executive Summary When China’s state-backed chipmaker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) made its initial public offering (IPO)…
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Not Just an Ally’s Favor: The Treasury Logic Behind the US-Japan Yen Intervention
Executive Summary Japan and the US intervened on yen on August 1 of this year, marking…
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Nvidia’s Asian Buyer Whitelist and the Gaps in US Chip Export Controls
Executive Summary The strategy of the United States towards chips export control defines what is prohibited.…
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What the Hormuz Crisis Has Revealed About China’s Oil Independence
Executive Summary In response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, China cut back oil…
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Forced-Labor Tariffs vs. Forced Labor Sanctions
On July 24th, with global supply chains still absorbing the shocks of the conflict in Iran…
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Can the Philippines Compete for EU De-risking Investment? Lessons from Vietnam’s Regulatory Reforms
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In a recent statement regarding the Trade Policy Review of the Philippines, delivered by…
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China’s Influence on South Korea-Mongolia Economic Relations
Executive Summary During the Korea-Mongolia summit on July 9, 2026, the two countries reached an agreement…
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What is Missing from the EU-South Korea Tech and Semiconductor Relationship
On the 10th June 2026, at the EU-Republic of Korea summit held in Brussels, the Digital…
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The Expiring Chokepoint: EUV Lithography and the Coming Test of Western Technological Leverage
Executive Summary Western export-control policy treats extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), embodied in the Dutch lithography manufacturer…
Follow ETP research
Publications, interviews and project updates from the Economics & Trade Programme.