The contours of the transition period for Britain’s exit from the EU are starting to take shape. Britain, in the meantime, is gradually preparing its trade policy life outside the EU as new bills pave their way in Westminster.
Author: Iana Dreyer
Data flows in FTAs: renewed attempts at EU Commission compromise could face new setback
The college of commissioners will meet tomorrow to decide how to deal with data flows in EU trade agreements. According to several sources close to the file, the European Commission might end up not dealing with the matter at all. Despite increasing calls from member states and the European …
A week in Brussels: Brexit Phase 2, China subsidies, net neutrality, robust trade
It’s been an intense week again for EU trade. While trade agreements with far away countries like those in the Mercosur bloc have taken a hit, the trade focus is now clearly shifting closer to home, namely to Brexit. Brexit: Habemus Phase II It was widely expected. Member …
Comment – Why the EU-Mercosur free trade deal could yet again fail
The last moments of a trade negotiation are always highly uncertain. Bluff and brinkmanship are part of the game. Sometimes, someone pulls a rabbit out of the hat and everything falls into place. Yet the petering out of the EU-Mercosur free trade negotiation in Buenos Aires on the sidelines …
Brexit: What happens to free trade agreements during the transition period?
Brexit crunch time is nigh. With the European Council’s expected decision to accept to move on to talking about a transition period to avoid a ‘cliff edge’ Brexit, another type of ‘cliff edge’ is emerging: that of the EU’s existing free trade agreements with third countries. There is a …
Buenos Aires: EU involved in bid to launch e-commerce plurilateral
This article was updated to reflect the final list of signatories of the e-commerce declaration. The four-day ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires that is to end today is not delivering on ‘classic’ World Trade Organization outcomes, such as a trade liberalisation agreement comparable to the updated Information Technology Agreement …
WTO Buenos Aires midway update
We are midway into the Buenos Aires World Trade Organization ministerial meeting. Here’s what’s shaping up: likely no formal deal, all fending for themselves, some serious work on e-commerce going forward – and India in all this. No actual deal, abundant work programmes Negotiators hoped that there could …
Week ahead in EU trade: WTO ministerial, digital trade and China investment
All eyes are on the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires this week. But there are other issues on the table back in Europe: digital and EU-China investment negotiations. All eyes on Buenos Aires There is little hope for a major concrete deliverable at the four-day …
A week in Brussels: Japan, Brexit compromise, WTO, Mercosur
It’s been an eventful week in Brussels. EU-Japan FTA – on track The EU and Japan finalised their free trade agreement negotiations this morning. The full text of the deal will be available in a few days. These FTA negotiations were politically concluded this summer. Negotiators worked …
Brexit: EU27 businesses look over the cliff edge
It’s taken business lobby groups in the EU a long time to figure out what the UK’s departure from the bloc will mean for companies in the remaining 27 member states. Now, all minds are focused on the risks of a cliff-edge Brexit as failure of the divorce talks becomes …
