News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, May 5, 2025
A quarter of the issues remain open, says Ekaterina Zaharieva, Bulgaria’s minister for foreign affairs. That’s the main takeaway from today’s meeting of European ministers on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. The remaining EU27 states concluded that “not much progress has been made since the European Council …
The trade week in Brussels was relatively quiet, with many professionals away due to holidays. The trade policy churn nonetheless continued, with COREPER and the Trade Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday instead of their standard Wednesday, when all institutions closed for Europe Day. Member states examined the Australia and …
The United Kingdom is preparing to establish an independent trade remedy regime as it leaves the European Union. But time to get this right is running out. Regardless of whether there is a status-quo transition period after Brexit date in late March 2019 or not, or whether the UK …
Member states adopted ‘in principle’ their draft conclusions on what the European Commission terms the “new architecture” of trade agreements. Following the near collapse of CETA, the trade agreement with Canada, and the Court of Justice of the EU’s May 2017 ruling on a free trade accord with Singapore, the …
A read through amendments tabled by trade committee members in preparation of a report on and trip to China highlights Europe’s divisions vis-à-vis the Asian country. One of the few areas of consensus is support for Taiwan. A delegation of European parliamentarians is in China this week to assess EU-China …
The EU and the United Kingdom agreed on a list of topics they will want to address in upcoming exploratory discussions on their future trading relationship.
Import quotas on sensitive agricultural products opened in the EU’s latest FTAs appear to be of little use to both exporters and importers. The last round of EU-Mercosur trade negotiations held last week ended in acrimony. Both EU agriculture market access – aka quotas on beef, sugar and ethanol …
The United Kingdom’s civil service is trying to increase its ability to grapple with trade policy matters across its various ministries. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, the UK’s state machinery found itself unprepared to tackle the challenges of a policy area that permeates all layers of government …
It’s hard not to wonder if Article 50 negotiations are progressing at all. The EU and Britain are trying to accelerate the pace of the UK’s withdrawal talks from the bloc. But they are digging in on the issue of Northern Ireland as the British political establishment tears itself apart …
The EU obtained a one-month extension of a reprieve from planned US import tariffs on steel and aluminium. The duties were expected to kick in today. The deadline was set in late March as the US sought to negotiate new deals with its trading partners in return for a reprieve from …
