News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
August is traditionally quiet in European Union trade policy making. Here’s this month’s main Brussels trade story so far. A panel of arbitrators appointed under the 2016 Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community ruled on 3 August that an import safeguard on frozen chicken …
A last little present for the August holidays brought to us from the southern hemisphere. South Africa requested consultations today with the EU in Geneva regarding measures applied mid July which add extra precautionary measures on its citrus fruit shipments from overseas. The measures are taken prima facie to avert …
AUGUST RECESS AT BORDERLEX: As of Monday 1 August, the small team at Borderlex will be on a break from trade news reporting as the policy machineries in Brussels, London and Geneva themselves grind to a halt for the summer. We will be back during the week of 22 August. …
Appeal arbitrators issued the first ruling that follows the demise of the Appellate Body in late 2019 at the World Trade Organization. The format and content of the award give an initial indication of what the future of WTO dispute settlement might be.
The European Commission announced it was planning to suspend import duties of 5.5% and 6.5% on nitrogen based inputs for fertiliser production. This is seen as a means to support food production and keep prices in check in response to the fallout of the war in Ukraine.
“Engaging China will remain key”, concluded the European Commission’s director-general for trade in a short Twitter thread following the first High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue held since 2020. The meeting was chaired by China’s vice-premier Liu He and the EU’s commission executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis. It was held …
The EU and Canada finalised negotiations towards a mutual recognition agreement of professional qualifications for architects. It took them five years to fulfil the pledge included in the text of their free trade agreement CETA, which has been in force provisionally since September 2017.
Comparing a range of international financial flows from governments to private firms with the European Union state aid environment in its single market is risky enough from the perspective of World Trade Organization legality. But the new EU foreign subsidies regulation is due to take another dive into the international …
Everything that has to do with climate-and-trade policy cooperation among the great powers, especially the European Union and the United States remains vague, woolly and hard to fathom. Nonetheless, a further step towards a certain degree of clarity was taken at Elmau at the G7 leaders’ summit hosted by Germany. …
Energy Charter Treaty diplomats have closed in on difficult negotiations to ‘modernise’ a treaty that originally aimed at promoting trade and protecting energy investments on the Eurasian landmass after the fall of the Soviet Union.
