News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Welcome to deep winter. It’s February 2019. It’s icy cold in many parts of Europe. The big-ticket European trade policy items this week and month will be those over which cold geopolitical winds are blowing: Brexit, transatlantic trade, and China. No love lost across Channel and Atlantic A chaotic No …
This week was all about transatlantic trade, biodiesel (here and here), the CETA investment court, Brexit preparedness and UK FTA rollovers. Below other important news. EU-Japan FTA comes into force Business and governments in the EU and Japan are cheering. The largest-ever trade agreement so far came into force today. Here, our …
There will be three main items to watch this week in EU trade: a European Court of Justice preliminary assessment of the EU’s Investment Court System, the direction of travel for Brexit, and WTO disputes. The fate of the European Union’s plans to set up bilateral an multilateral investment tribunals …
Four dozen World Trade Organization members including the EU, China and the US will kick off negotiations on digital trade in March in a move designed to reinvigorate the beleaguered trade body. Meanwhile, a group of ‘like-minded’ members led by Canada warned that risks to the multilateral trading system – …
It’s been an intense week! The EU was involved in the launch of plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce (Jennifer will have more) in Switzerland. That will be a boost to the World Trade Organization. Southeast Asia also featured highly on the agenda as a ministerial meeting was held this week amid rows …
A dense week lies ahead. Among the many meetings to watch let’s point out the following: the World Trade Organization mini-ministerial in Davos, a critical trade committee meeting in the European Parliament, and ministerial meetings with ASEAN and African Union leaders today in Brussels. Saving the WTO in the Swiss …
The European Commission tabled draft mandates to member states today to allow it to start trade negotiations with the United States. The move comes following the trade truce between the White House and the commission reached last July and following a meeting between trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Representative …
Globalisation and robotics will eventually improve the world, but they are creating competition for services jobs that is coming quickly and in ways that will seem very unfair, Richard Baldwin tells Borderlex. Workers and governments must prepare for the advance of ‘globotics’.
This week won’t be too exciting in European Union trade, with no big-ticket items on the formal agenda for trade policy wonks to get excited about. Except for those who care about Brexit and its impact on trade with a departing EU member state that is worth about 16% of …
Venezuela struck back this week against US sanctions targeting the government of President Nicolás Maduro, filing a World Trade Organization complaint that accuses Washington of imposing “coercive trade-restrictive measures on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the context of attempts to isolate Venezuela economically”. The dispute is the latest touching …
