News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
The British government is eager to get started negotiating the future UK-EU relationship post-Brexit – despite there being no real national consensus in Britain about that relationship yet and no mandate from Parliament. With less than one year to go until Brexit date, the clock is ticking. A government …
With Easter approaching it’s been a comparatively quiet week in Brussels, although behind the scenes there is a lot of work on dealing with the United States’ protectionist “extortion”, as so many call it. There are preparations for the next phase of Brexit negotiations and there’s been work hammering out …
It’s been a momentous week in EU trade. We had the Trump tariff exemption saga in Brussels, and the next phase of Brexit negotiations agreed today by the member states. For Brexit, we have in principle: a transitional period combined with relatively clean withdrawal terms, and initial guidelines for a …
On Monday, the European Commission revealed that it had taken on board the United Kingdom’s request for help in asking third countries to continue to treat Britain as if it were an EU member state during the planned 21-month transition period after Brexit. The concession was included in a …
The EU and the UK have agreed in principle on a transition period that would last from late March 2019 to late December 2020. During that period, in principle the whole EU acquis communautaire applies to Britain. That period will be used to negotiate the terms of the future EU-UK …
Two of the biggest trade issues hanging over the EU will be on various agendas this week: the draft Brexit withdrawal and transition agreement, and the bloc’s ongoing efforts to avoid pending US steel and aluminium tariffs. European leaders are set to accept the draft agreement, but it’s anyone’s guess …
Japanese business groups want the EU and the UK to start working on rolling over the yet-to-be ratified EU-Japan free trade accord so that it also applies to Britain after Brexit. They also set out specific demands for the future EU-UK trade agreement. These demands echo origin rule requests by Britain’s …
British government proposals to find a solution to the UK-Ireland border after Brexit are “imaginative” but largely unrealistic and there is “no evidence” that a soft border is feasible, a House of Commons committee has found.
Germany is leaving behind a period of six months of wait-and-see on major policy areas and has finally installed a new coalition government. For Berlin, Brexit is now starting to be one of the country’s top European priorities. The trade aspect of the UK’s withdrawal, transition period and future …
Anyone with a backlog of work should try to catch up on it this week, as the trade agenda is rather thin and next week is packed. The top news out of Brussels in the next few days may well focus on the Brexit draft guidelines, which are the subject …
