The Commission has published six negotiating texts it tabled to Mexico after first round of talks held this year with the North American country aiming at modernising their 2001 free trade agreement. The texts tabled reveal the EU’s priorities: rules of origin, public procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, energy and raw …
Author: Iana Dreyer
Brexit – what do we actually know about UK and EU plans?
Being a trade journalist working on Brexit has so far has meant having a frustrating time . Since 23 June 2016, there hasn’t actually been anything substantial to properly report on. That could soon change.
Data, labour mobility and innovation at heart of TABC concerns over Brexit
The Trans-Atlantic Business Council has released its member’s views on what they want to see preserved once the United Kingdom leaves the EU, a process which is expected to start in the spring 2017. The business group highlights issues related to the knowledge economy: labour mobility, data, and research and innovation. …
Bulgarian socialist-drafted employment committee report rejects CETA
The European Parliament is preparing its ratification of the contentious EU Canada free trade agreement CETA. While it is a generally received notion that CETA will likely muster enough votes to form a majority in favour of ratifying the deal, the process in the Parliament will not be smooth sailing. …
China MES : what member states are still working on
Member states have been working hard to reach a compromise package on overhauling EU trade defence law ahead of the long-awaited 11 December deadline enshrined in China’s WTO accession protocol obliging its partners to let go of the analogue country methodology applied to (former) planned economies, or ‘non market economies’. …
EU and Cuba to sign first ever political and economic pact
The recent death of the iconic leader Fidel Castro has accelerated a process initiated in 2014 by the EU to move away from sanctioning Cuba for its human rights abuses and instead gradually engaging politically and economically with the island nation that has been under a US trade embargo for more than sixty …
TiSA: Global Services Coalition calls for swift resumption of negotiations
In a letter to trade ambassadors in Geneva, business groups have called on negotiators to ensure the Trade in Services Agreement negotiations can resume as quickly as possible. Negotiators buried their hatchets in the days following the election of Donald Trump to become the next US president. Washington lost …
Environmental Goods Agreement – why talks faltered
The Environmental Goods Agreement, a deal under negotiation among seventeen WTO members who cover the bulk of trade in technologies that can help make the planet a more liveable place for future generations, was supposed to be easy. It turned out be a hornet’s nest. This is why. When …
“Namur declaration” calls for more national involvement in EU trade deals
The leader of the Belgian region of Wallonia, Paul Magnette, who is also an academic, orchestrated a declaration on trade policy by leading professors across the West entitled the Namur Declaration. The three-page text, released on Monday (5 December 2016) calls for greater scrutiny of trade agreements by national and regional parliaments in …
UK trade secretary Liam Fox vows continuity in WTO
The United Kingdom’s International Trade Secretary has vowed to secure a smooth transition for his country as it becomes a potentially separate trading entity from the EU when it exists the bloc. Should the UK leave the EU’s customs union and start developing its own trade policy after leaving …
