News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Four themes will dominate EU trade this week: Brexit, transatlantic relations, WTO issues, and South Africa. Brexit – deal or no deal? It is 9 am Monday morning and EU27 member state ministers are marching as we speak into the Justus Lipsius building on rue de la Loi in Brussels …
Today’s ‘FAC Trade’, as the meeting of trade ministers in November is called in the jargon, was intense. Here’s a rundown of the main outcomes of a meeting that was mainly about taking stock of many trade files.
This week’s midterm election will probably have little impact on the Trump administration’s trade policies, though the Democrats have a role to play in ratifying the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and oversight of new trade negotiations.
After a long All-Saints week-end, this early November week begins in a rush. The focus will be on legislative work in Brussels, which will be overshadowed by developments in the United States. President Trump has announced new sanctions on Iran today, one day before mid-term elections. The Iran move is …
With Australia’s ratification this week of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal is now set to kick in next month. The accord, which will provide freer trade and investment access among its 11 members and link up markets with a combined gross domestic product of $13.4 trillion, …
It’s school holiday week in Brussels, so we expect few meetings there in the coming days. But there is still loads happening in the background. EU and Chinese negotiators are meeting two days in an attempt to move forward on their bilateral investment agreement and other common files such as …
US duties on steel and aluminium are not only taking a toll on countries across the globe, but they’re triggering a “wave of direct and indirect actions and reactions” that is likely to expand in the coming weeks and months. “Obviously one country’s action becomes the second country’s reason to …
WTO focus Expect news this week on World Trade Organization issues. In Geneva, there will be a few special meetings on agriculture and on subsidies and countervailing measures that could indicate how much movement there really is on market access talks in the first and the ‘reform’ agenda driven by Western …
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 …
Next week, Canada will unveil to a group of World Trade Organization members a discussion paper outlining consensus-based solutions that Ottawa says will bolster the global trading system. The problem is that the US – which isn’t part of that group – has already identified major elements of the Canadian …
