Today EU member states gathered around the Commission to take stock of various free trade agreement files. Here a run through what we have gathered at the foreign affairs Council and during the past week in Brussels. EU Mercosur and EU Mexico free trade negotiations “We are now entering …
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EU plans on glyphosate, MRLs, endocrine disruptors raise hackles at WTO
EU health and safety measures for food products were a key focus of a meeting at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Monday (06 November 2017). MC11 flop on Maximum Residue Levels The meeting of the WTO committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures examined a United States …
WTO members raise concerns over new EU trade defence method
It’s a hot week in the World Trade Organization as members spar over disputes and trade remedies. On Wednesday (25 October 2017) the Committee of Antidumping Practices examined among others the EU’s new trade defence legislation. Eleven WTO members criticised the EU’s planned overhaul of the way it calculates dumping …
In brief: Australia, New Zealand, new TDI method, Singapore FTA
The European Parliament’s INTA committee adopted the following reports today (12 October 2017): Start of EU Australia and New Zealand free trade agreement negotiations – Rapporteur Daniel Caspary: 38 in favour, 5 against, 1 absention Definition, presentation and labelling of spirit drinks – Rapporteur Nicola Danti – 35 in favour, …
EU India summit: rice key staple on trade menu
The central question hovering over the fourteenth EU India summit held this week in New Delhi was whether both sides would be able to revive long-stalled bilateral trade negotiations known under the acronym BTIA. Though the two parties didn’t manage to do so they committed to other steps to help …
Blog: Industry welcomes new EU trade defence method, more on new regulation
Aegis Europe, the industry coalition that has been driving opposition in the EU to the granting of ‘market economy’ treatment to Chinese imports in the bloc’s trade defence instruments, welcomed the compromise reached on Tuesday (3 October 2017) between the EU’s three main institutions on a new trade defence regulation. …
Trilogue compromise: labour standards creep into EU trade defence legislation
The EU appears to have innovated in the way it calculates the normal value of a product’s good in its future trade defence investigations. The European Council, the Commission and the European Parliament found common ground during a ‘trilogue meeting’ on Tuesday (3 October 2017) in Strasbourg. The …
Malmström reiterates call for EU India High Level Dialogue
In early September 2017, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi reshuffled his government in response to news of slower economic growth following his team’s drastic clampdown on cash. ‘Demonetization’, as the reform is called to reduce the share of the informal economy in India, has taken a toll on growth levels. …
EU Pakistan WTO plastics dispute turns into battle over how to handle illegal subsidies
When the EU decided not to renew ‘countervailing duties’ on imports of polyethylene telephtalate from Pakistan in September 2015 that had been in place for a decade, the South Asian government initially considered withdrawing a complaint it had filed a few months earlier against these measures in the WTO. …
EU-China trade defence instrument conversation heating up
The EU and China are overtly wrangling over how to handle trade defence cases under World Trade Organization rules. The WTO released working documents today that have been circulating among members of the body’s working group on rules that showcase how intense the disagreements currently run in the organisation over subsidy …