This week has mainly been about the EU-Vietnam trade agreement and the final stretches over the 20-year-old EU Mercosur trade negotiations.
Asia
EU member states give green light to Vietnam trade and investment pacts
It took three and a half years since the negotiations were first finalised, but here we are: the EU’s member states has given the green light to the EU Vietnam free trade agreement and investment protection agreement. This paves the way for official signature and the ratification process in the …
Week in Brussels: Vietnam, banana pesticides, ISDS awards and state aid
This week we saw developments on the EU China market economy case, Mercosur, the UK GSP scheme, fishing and Korea. What else happened?
EU Korea: Movement on auto standards and labour
The EU not only managed to get South Korea to launch the ratification process of International Labour Organisation conventions it committed to abide by in the 2011 EU Korea free trade agreement, Seoul also agreed to update and accept new technical and EU automotive standards as part of ongoing bilateral …
EU WTO market economy status case suspended – following request from China
The Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization has suspended the high-profile case it brought against the European Union. Beijing sued because it believed the EU had not complied with a commitment to treat is as a market economy in its trade defence measures in time for a December …
Week Ahead in EU trade: E-commerce, Vietnam, Indonesia
The main EU trade policy items to watch out for this week are: e-commerce, Indonesian FTA, Vietnam FTA and IPA.
Auto vs steel industry battle intensifies over import safeguard
The European Union is reviewing a safeguard it introduced earlier in 2019 to relieve steel producers from inexpensive imports in a market it feared would be flooded by cheap products in the aftermath of the US’s Section 232 steel import restrictions. The measure pits embattled European steel producers against the …
Long read – Self reliance: the emerging EU trade policy trend in a hostile world
The European Commission no longer seems to trust global norms, fora or rule-making negotiations to uphold its interests in digital, competition, industry and trade policy. In fact many norms hardly exist and won’t likely emerge so quickly. The EU’s executive arm has been rethinking its policy toolkit and is seeking …
EU Vietnam agreements – presidency hopes to clear FTA by end June
The Romanian presidency of the European Union is hoping to see the EU Vietnam free trade agreement agreed by member states and ready for signature with Hanoi by the end of June. Bucharest appears less confident a separate investment protection agreement can be agreed by the Council by the same …
WTO case against new EU biofuels regime under way, say sources
“It will come. And soon,” a source close to the Indonesian government said when asked if and when Jakarta would file a dispute at the World Trade Organization in response to the EU’s new rules on biofuel mixes being released today (21 May). Tuesday was the final act of a …
