Global Trade with Fexingo: WTO, Free Trade Agreements, and International Commerce

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the world's first carbon border tax. They explain how it works, why it targets imports of steel, cement, aluminum, and fertilizer, and what it means for developing countries and global trade negotiations. With specific examples from the steel industry and India, they explore whether CBAM is a climate sol...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into a single tariff that rewrote the global steel trade: the US Section 232 national security tariff imposed in 2018. They trace how a 25% duty on steel imports aimed at protecting domestic producers instead triggered a cascade of trade diversion, retaliation, and new supply chains. Using the example of a Vietnamese steel mill that...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how a single tariff exemption for Ethiopian coffee under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) rewrote global coffee trade dynamics. They trace the impact from 2004, when Ethiopia's coffee exports to the US were minimal, to 2024, when they exceeded $250 million. The discussion covers how the rule incentivized supply chain shifts, empowered smallholde...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the 1996 WTO Information Technology Agreement's pharmaceutical tariff exemption reshaped global drug supply chains. They trace the unintended consequences of zero tariffs on active pharmaceutical ingredients, showing how it concentrated production in India and China, disrupted domestic drug manufacturing in Africa and Latin America, and created fragility...

In this 50th episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into a single rule that reshaped the global trade of used cars: the minimum age requirement under the U.S.-Japan trade agreement. They trace how a 25-year-old import rule created a massive export market for Japanese vehicles, transformed the economies of East African nations, and sparked a debate about environmental standards a...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna examine how the United States' Section 232 steel tariffs, imposed in 2018 and largely sustained through 2026, fundamentally rewrote the global steel trade. They trace the rule's origin—national security grounds under a Cold War-era law—and its ripple effects: a wave of diversion as Chinese and Russian steel flooded other markets, retalia...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into one specific trade rule that quietly reshaped the global electric vehicle battery supply chain—the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement's stricter rules of origin for EV batteries. They explore how the requirement for 75% regional value content and the exclusion of certain battery components from China forced automakers like Ford, Gene...

Episode 47 of Global Trade with Fexingo dives into the World Trade Organization's 1995 Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement and how one provision—international standards for medical devices—reshaped a $600 billion industry. Lucas and Luna explore the case of pulse oximeters: why devices calibrated for lighter skin failed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the TBT agreement's 'necessity test' f...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the surprisingly complex world of wine labeling rules. They focus on the European Union's Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) system and how it has reshaped global wine trade, using the example of Prosecco versus Prosecco DOCG. Learn how a single rule created a multi-billion-dollar market for authentic Italian sparkling wine...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the surprising impact of a single anti-dumping duty on the global shrimp industry. They trace how a 2004 U.S. tariff on Vietnamese shrimp reshaped supply chains, created a boom in Ecuadorian aquaculture, and forced Southeast Asian producers to innovate or exit. With specific data on trade volumes, price shifts, and producer respo...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how a single rule of origin requirement in the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement rewrote the global chocolate supply chain. They trace the decision by Hershey to open a $250 million chocolate factory in Colombia in 2024, bypassing traditional cocoa-producing West Africa. The hosts explain the specific tariff-avoidance math: cocoa processed in Colombia qu...

In 2024, a single provision buried in the US-Japan Digital Trade Agreement reshaped how every tech company handles cross-border data. Lucas and Luna unpack the 'Data Free Flow with Trust' clause — what it actually says, why it sidesteps the WTO, and how it forced Google and Meta to redesign their Asia-Pacific server architecture. They trace the rule's origin to a 2019 G20 Osaka negotiation, show h...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack how China's 2023 export controls on germanium and gallium reshaped the global rare-earth supply chain. They walk through the specific mineral groups affected, how Beijing's move sent shockwaves through semiconductor and defense industries, and why Western governments are now scrambling to fund domestic processing capacity. The con...

Episode 41 of Global Trade with Fexingo dives into a single rule that transformed the international automobile industry: rules of origin in free trade agreements. Hosts Lucas and Luna unpack the specific case of the USMCA's automotive rules, which require 75% regional value content and 70% steel and aluminum sourcing from North America. They explain how this rule, enforced through production traci...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the 2020 U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program—a rule requiring full traceability from catch to entry for 13 species like tuna and shrimp. They trace how a single compliance requirement rewritten supply chains across Southeast Asia, forced consolidation among Thai and Vietnamese processors, and reshaped trade flows worth over...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the 2012 US anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels—a single trade action that reshaped the global solar supply chain. They unpack how the US Department of Commerce imposed tariffs of roughly 30 percent on Chinese solar cells and modules, triggering a cascade of factory relocations to Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia a...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how a single rule change—the requirement for verified gross mass (VGM) on container shipments—rewrote global container trade. Starting with a specific case, a Danish shipping line fined $1.2 million for misdeclared container weights after the 2016 SOLAS amendment, they unpack why the rule was introduced, how it reshaped port operations and supply chain costs...

Lucas and Luna explore how the 'Made in X' rule for textiles — specifically the fabric-forward rule for determining a garment's country of origin — reshaped global apparel supply chains. They trace a single cotton shirt through the knotty origin-label rules that force brands to reimagine sourcing, and examine how a 2025 EU regulation is pressuring Bangladesh, Vietnam, and sub-Saharan African produ...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack the surprisingly complex history of the cotton certificate of origin — a single piece of paperwork that has shaped global cotton trade for over a century. They trace its origins to the 1920s and the U.S. Cotton Futures Act, explain how it became a de facto quality seal, and reveal how its misuse in the 1980s led to the creation of the modern International Cot...

Episode 35 of Global Trade with Fexingo unpacks how a single provision in the 2010 Lacey Act amendments rewrote the global furniture trade. Lucas and Luna trace the rule from a obscure amendment targeting illegal logging to a compliance headache that forced IKEA, Ashley Furniture, and hundreds of Chinese exporters to overhaul their procurement systems. They walk through the $50 million in fines le...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore a little-known but transformative trade rule: the US-EU Critical Minerals Agreement, signed in 2024. They trace how a single provision allowing mined and processed minerals from the EU to count toward US electric vehicle tax credit requirements has reshaped supply chains across lithium, cobalt, and nickel. The hosts examine how t...

Episode 33 of Global Trade with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna dive into the surprising story of how one obscure financial sanction against a Malaysian rubber-glove manufacturer in 2024 rewrote compliance procedures for thousands of traders worldwide. They unpack the trigger: the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, fined Top Glove $1.4 million for accepting payments from a North Ko...

In this episode of Global Trade with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dig into the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) — the world's first carbon border tax. They explain how CBAM works, why it targets imports of steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, electricity, and hydrogen, and how it's already reshaping supply chains from Brazil to China. Lucas walks through the mechanics: import...

Episode 31 of Global Trade with Fexingo dives into how a single rule of origin in the U.S.–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement reshaped the global coffee trade. Lucas and Luna explore the shift from instant coffee to specialty beans, the rise of Colombian single-origin roasters, and how a tariff reduction on green coffee transformed supply chains from Bogotá to Brooklyn. They explain the technical...

For decades, the global banana trade was dominated by a handful of American multinationals. Then the European Union introduced a complex tariff-and-quota system that favored former colonies. This episode traces the longest-running dispute in WTO history — from the 1993 banana regime to the 2009 Geneva Agreement — and shows how a single trade rule reshaped the entire industry. Lucas and Luna walk t...