News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
The British government will seek to obtain an adequacy decision from Brussels over its data protection rules as it leaves the EU. Whitehall is also signalling interest in continuing to be involved in setting EU rules, a widely anticipated “future partnership” paper from the Department for Exiting the European Union …
The British government has started setting out its negotiating positions in a series of new papers released last week. More papers are to be released this week, ahead of a new round of Article 50 talks towards its withdrawal from the European Union to be held in the week of …
Sneaky. But unsurprising. France’s constitutional council delivered its verdict on the EU Canada CETA free trade agreement in the depths of summer. On the very last day of July 2017, France’s so-called ‘wise men’ disclosed that they had strictly no objections to the controversial trade deal which more than …
Since free trade talks between the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur were revived in 2016, there has been no serious negotiation on one of the most sensitive topics in their trading relationship: sugar. But EU and Brazil sugar industries are already active on the battleground over what could …
UK trade secretary Liam Fox is in the United States for two days of talks with US counterparts as part of a recently established US-UK trade and investment working group. Fox will further travel to Mexico. Fox is on a mission to reassure its partners that Britain will deliver stability …
In May 2017 I published an article entitled Trade – The newcomer think tank that has the ear of Whitehall on the Legatum Institute in London on this website. The article was critical of the Legatum Institute’s trade work and of the background of its main funder Christopher Chandler. …
In May 2017 I published an article entitled Trade – The newcomer think tank that has the ear of Whitehall on the Legatum Institute in London on this website. The article was critical of the Legatum Institute’s trade work and of the background of its main funder Christopher Chandler. …
There has been a flurry of activity in the World Trade Organization this week in attempts to make progress on some form of deal for the coming ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires. The EU is proving particularly proactive in this regard, though it faces significant opposition from developing countries in …
The House of Lords released a 130-page report Brexit: Trade in Goods this week. The report builds on extensive input from key British industries and a variety of independent consultancies and academics. What is striking in this report is an apparent mismatch between what the UK’s leading industries care …
The EU and China are overtly wrangling over how to handle trade defence cases under World Trade Organization rules. The WTO released working documents today that have been circulating among members of the body’s working group on rules that showcase how intense the disagreements currently run in the organisation over subsidy …
