News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Proponents of giving equal weight to labour and environment provisions in relation to commercial commitments in the EU’s free trade agreements were disappointed. On Tuesday, the European Commission ended a six-month consultation process with nongovernmental organisations and business by releasing a ‘non paper’ on how to strengthen so-called trade and …
The central topic on the minds of trade ministers during their informal meeting in snowy Sofia on Tuesday was the United States’s trade policies. The EU is readying a differentiated response to any possible import duties US President Donald Trump could apply to European steel and aluminium. In February, …
Foreign affairs ministers met today in Sofia to take decisions on a variety of difficult foreign affairs files. The picture isn’t rosy, with Syria, Venezuela or Myanmar on top of leaders’ agenda. The Foreign Affairs Council also devised a few new conclusions on the EU’s climate diplomacy. The use …
EU trade ministers are meeting in Bulgaria. The EU-ASEAN Business Summit and ASEAN Economic Ministers’ meeting will focus on trade and investment ties between the two regions. More details below: Foreign Affairs Council Trade EU trade ministers will have two main issues in mind at a meeting that …
This week was truly packed with activities and events related to trade. The key focus has been Brexit – the transition period and future EU-UK relationship. These topics we now cover separately in dedicated articles and a new series of blogs, the Brexit Notes. The other key focus this week …
The EU is in the final stages of free trade negotiations with the South American bloc Mercosur. It is readying for the adoption of a new trade agreement with Japan and Vietnam. Anti trade agreement campaign groups have recently stepped up their activities to fight these agreements. A joint …
Mexican and EU negotiators are not closing in on a deal to modernise their almost two-decade-old Global Agreement. Trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström and agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan, who had held off a final decision to travel to Mexico City until today to meet the negotiators and broker sensitive compromises, …
Slow is often the norm at institutions such as the World Trade Organization, but efforts to fill vacant seats on the WTO’s Appellate Body really haven’t made a bit of progress. The reason for the standstill, as trade aficionados well know, is Washington’s refusal to support starting the process to …
Some people are getting impatient about the slow pace of ratification of the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement that was inked in 2015. Now, Vietnam and the European Commission are pointing fingers at each other over the delay. The ‘legal scrubbing’ of the trade deal has dragged on for more …
US proposals on how to punish foreign steel and aluminium exporters for unfair trade practices miss the point and would do more harm than good, European Aluminium says. Global excess capacity – specifically in China – is the “root cause of the main challenges” that the aluminium industry faces …
