News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Sunday, April 27, 2025
The EU and Oceania are edging towards an economic rapprochement. Long-awaited free trade agreement talks between the EU and Australia and New Zealand are expected to receive the green light from member states next month. The move comes as the two Oceanian countries seek to diversify their security ties …
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 Northern Ireland without a government for months and the pro-independence governing party SNP in Scotland weakened after the last general elections, devolution issues have been politically on the backburner. Yet Brexit date is approaching. The question of how to avoid policy gridlock and fragmentation of the United Kingdom’s …
The European Free Trade Association expects to sign a free trade agreement with Ecuador as well as an expanded accord with Turkey this year. Negotiations will continue with India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, while talks with the Latin American Mercosur bloc that began in 2017 will also move ahead in …
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 …
Britain sees the fact that the European Union accepted that Britain may negotiate and sign international agreements with third countries during the planned transition or implementation period after March 2019 as a major political victory. Now London is accelerating the pace of engagement with prospective trading partners. During a …
EU leaders will be in the Bulgarian seaside resort of Varna today to meet with Turkish counterparts including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is hoping to hear some good news about plans to begin technical talks on their bilateral customs union. He’s likely to be disappointed. And US tariffs on goods …
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 …
