London has released its negotiating objectives towards a free trade agreement with New Zealand. Talks with ‘the Kiwis’ announced in June, formally started this week.
Author: Iana Dreyer
Week Ahead: WTO DG selection, South Africa, Wallonia, UK-EU and UK Turkey
WTO director-general candidates This week in Geneva auditions will be held from Wednesday to Friday. The eight candidates to the position of World Trade Organization director-general will make their case in front of the assembled country ambassadors to the organisation. These meetings kick-off a vetting process whereby candidates will gradually …
Week in Brussels: border carbon adjustment, Brexit preparedness, ESA, Georgia
Carbon border adjustment – Lange prefers ETS extension The German chemical industry association VCI held a webinar this week on trade policy and climate change. International trade committee chair Bernd Lange was a speaker. Whether this is an indication of what is to come as the EU prepares to prepare …
Ukraine, EU prepare ground for Association Agreement upgrade amidst trade growth
The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine has very obviously yielded concrete results: trade both ways has increased by almost 50% between 2016 and 2019, according to a new evaluation report released by the European Parliament. The DCFTA is part of a wider Association …
Elizabeth Truss: WTO should not over-reach
Britain’s international trade secretary told participants in a webinar hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the UK would pursuing first and foremost its regulatory sovereignty. That might not come as a surprise. But Elizabeth’s Truss’ statements made today offer a rare full articulation of the latest government …
WTO Corner: Kenya, Saudi, UK candidates for top job, EUI survey, Japan, investment facilitation
Three candidates from African continent So now it’s official. There are now three candidates from the African continent vying for the WTO’s director-general job. Kenya submitted the candidacy of Amina Mohamed, a high-profile Kenyan politician and a former envoy to the WTO who hosted the last ministerial meeting in Nairobi …
Marie-Pierre Vedrenne: Defending your trade interests is not protectionism
In a conversation with Borderlex’s Iana Dreyer, MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne explains her thinking behind her widely-endorsed report that could turn the EU’s trade retaliatory ‘bazooka’ into something even bigger.
In brief: WTO DG nomination update
Tomorrow is deadline for World Trade Organization members to file their candidates for the director-general position that is becoming vacant at the end of August following Roberto Azevêdo’s resignation. Borderlex has heard of two potential new candidacies that we might see coming: Amina Mohamed from Kenya currently sports minister, former …
MEPs vote for more retaliation powers as trade tensions with US mount
Trade is now a matter for the boxing ring. This is at least the message the press received from an emailed statement of the centre-right European People’s Party office on Monday ahead of a vote on European Union plans to strengthen its legal powers to ‘retaliate’ in the face of …
Week in Brussels: Hogan on US, France and CETA, Cambodia, CTEO
It’s been one of those relatively low-key weeks on trade in Brussels – which only prepare the ground for more intense meetings and developments later on. Hogan back in action To start with: Phil Hogan is back! After a ‘purdah’ period imposed on him by his bosses while he was …
