By Eric Huang

A Spine-Tingling Year : Review of 2020

The year of 2020 is going to the end soon. The following events shock the world in 2020 and will continue to simmer in 2021.

The COVID-19 epidemic that broke out in Wuhan, China at the end of December 2019, still plagues the world after one-year-time. The global health emergency brought about unprecedented collaboration in the form of data sharing and mobilization of resources between academia, governments, philanthropic organizations and private companies. These initiatives enabled the development of the Covid-19 vaccines that are already being distributed to millions of people. The success of the vaccine will directly affect the global economic recovery, especially in the tourism industry in 2021.

In 2018, President Donald Trump launched a "trade war" against China because of the "trade deficit" between China and the US. As a result, the export volume from China to the U.S. declined in 2019. This SINO-US trade conflict, however, continue to expand in 2020 even in the pandemic period and cause the sky-high freight rate and serious empty containers issue globally. But after Biden takes office, will he continue to implement tariff wars that are inconsistent with WTO rules, or will he cancel or even adopt other tariff measures? At least it will not be revealed until Biden officially enters the White House in January.

After four and half years of chaos, the UK and EU finally reach a trade deal for Brexit. The fact that a deal has been done is good news. The consequences of failure would have been bad for both sides, though immeasurably worse for the UK. The two sides have been in fierce negotiations, and there are major conflicts in terms of competition rules and fishing rights, and the governance of their new relationship. The UK and the EU finally reached a historic trade agreement before the December 31 deadline. Next, the agreement still needs the approval of the UK and the European Parliament.

Photo：Albany Capture，Link：Unsplash

Photo：Gerd Altmann，Link：Pixabay