News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
The United Kingdom failed in its goal to have its separate non-EU tariff schedule certified without objections by fellow World Trade Organization members as a deadline to do so passed today. Now London is preparing to formally renegotiate. “As expected, some trading partners have expressed reservations about our proposed treatment …
The week is far from over at the time of writing, but it’s still time to send out our regular Friday “Week in Brussels” column, as there is plenty of material already. The EU quarter of Brussels has been in total lockdown for several days as heads of government from …
The US trade representative formally notified Congress of its intention to launch free trade agreement negotiations with the UK as it leaves the European Union. “An ambitious trade agreement between our two countries could further expand this relationship by removing existing goods and services tariff and non-tariff barriers and by …
The world’s top agriculture exporters raised deep concerns during a meeting in Geneva about the approach the European Union and the United Kingdom are taking over the split of their common ‘tariff rate quotas’ as a result of Brexit. The two need to divide close to 100 TRQs, mainly in …
Is small beautiful? And is not having the United States on board a trade negotiation even more so? That could well be, as shown by the state of very below-the-radar discussions on ‘services domestic regulation’ unfolding in the World Trade Organization. A group of about 30 WTO members have been …
The Department for International trade is working hard behind the scenes to try to ‘roll over’ as many EU free trade agreements as possible for Brexit date. Several months ago, DIT officials were often heard making optimistic statements about the likelihood of having these agreements ready by next March. How …
The United Kingdom today formally circulated its first tariff schedule as a would-be standalone member of the World Trade Organization, independent from the European Union. WTO members have three months review the schedule and raise objections if necessary. The UK wants to have its own schedule ready ahead of Brexit …
The EU and Japan signed their long-awaited economic partnership agreement in Tokyo today. The deal was flanked by announcements that both sides had finalised work to recognise each other’s data privacy regimes – also called ‘adequacy decisions’ – to complement the trade agreement. The moves were well received in policy …
Both the United Kingdom and the United States want to start free trade talks as soon as possible once Britain is out of the European Union. But the scope and outcome of any such trade negotiation depends on the future UK-EU relationship, while both British and US business interest for …
The European Commission hopes to finalise preparations on the apportionment of tariff rate quotas between the EU and the UK by the end of the year to make sure all practical procedures are in place before Brexit date. During a discussion with MEPs, a commission official said the bloc needed …
