News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, April 28, 2025
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 …
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 …
Seeing that the World bTrade Organization survives, and that its dispute settlement function survives, remains independent and keeps is ‘bite’, is one of the EU’s current strategic priorities. In practice, the WTO dispute settlement system will weaken regardless of EU efforts to amend it, and the bloc will increasingly take …
The EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations announced plans yesterday to upgrade their relationship to a ‘strategic partnership’. But palm oil and human rights disagreements continue to put sand in the wheels of the bilateral cooperation machinery. Strategic partner status tends to mean little in practice. For the …
European Union quotas on imports of 26 steel product categories that have been in place provisionally since July will become definitive after member states gave the green light to the move today in Brussels. The European Commission also decided to go ahead with imposing safeguards on Indica rice from Cambodia …
This week has mainly been about everyone getting back to work. The EU’s top priority is the transatlantic relationship. Trade chief Cecilia Malmström, visiting Washington in the early days of January, signals just that. But were there actually any new developments this week on the planned trade deals? Not really, as …
It’s mainly been a WTO-intensive week for the EU with a revised intellectual property dispute filed against China, and the US having yet another gripe about the Appellate Body. London clinched a short bye-bye deal with Norway, Iceland and Liecthenstein, while the country is realising little is actually in place in …
Remember when the European Union filed a dispute at the World Trade Organization last spring targeting Chinese intellectual property violations and forced technology transfers? In fact, the preliminary consultations foreseen by WTO rules before legal proceedings begin never actually took place. Instead, the EU went back to the drawing board …
The ratification by a large majority of MEPs of the European Union-Japan Economic Partnership agreement this week in Strasbourg is a boost to the morale of decision-makers battered by the ongoing transatlantic trade and gas ‘war’ – in which Germany is quietly starting to do some of the heavy lifting. …
The European Parliament ratified the EU Japan Economic Partnership. Outcome: 474 votes in favour, 152 votes against, 40 abstensions.
