Trade professionals in Brussels are shocked and depressed following the victory of trade-sceptic Donald Trump in the US elections. The flagship but fledgling transatlantic TTIP is seen as frozen, or dead, at least for the time being. But some also see opportunity in this dire situation. The Transpacific Partnership Agreement …
Asia
Malmström preparing trip to China – in bid to talk barriers and reassure China on TDI
Commissioner Malmström is sending Jean-Luc Demarty, the Director-General of DG Trade, to China to meet Chinese trade officials ahead of a planned meeting between herself and Mr Gao Hucheng, her Chinese counterpart, in the coming weeks. The move comes at a tense moment in bilateral relations as the EU …
New EU trade defence methodology strikingly similar to previous – lawyers
Plus ça change. That’s how one could summarise the Commission’s approach to changing its current methodology applied to antidumping cases against China. Ahead of a move to do away with treating China as a planned economy in its trade defence law in December this year, the EU Commission is inventing …
EU China MES move makes few people happy
The EU’s proposal to change its antidumping legislation to prepare for a removal of China of its list of non market economies is being greeted with scepticism on both sides of the argument.
EU trade defence proposal – what to expect?
There is a lot of speculation about the exact content of the planned trade defence instrument overhaul the Commission will propose ahead of a December deadline to stop treating China as a non market economy in its antidumping proceedings. The proposal is expected to be sent to member states and …
Commission plans to step up promotion of EU Vietnam FTA – amidst CETA row
The Vietnamese government is watching the protracted CETA ratification process in the EU with perplexity and anxiety as it asks itself what this could mean for its own recently concluded deal with the EU. The EU Commission shares these worries. In 2015, Vietnam concluded a wide-reaching free trade agreement with …
Metals at heart of fresh EU dispute with China in WTO
Winning a case in the WTO against Chinese restrictions on rare earths back in 2014 was not enough for both the EU and the United States. Early October, Washington launched a new case against continued export restrictions by China on various minerals and metals. This week, the Brussels followed into …
Sri Lanka tries to narrow down EU demands in GSP Plus bid
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Ambassador Rodney Perera in Brussels on 20 October 2016. Credit: Iana Dreyer It should be simple and straightforward: if Sri Lanka applies the 27 human rights, labour and environmental conventions listed by the EU’s regulation, the country should be able to benefit from …
Commission to leverage TDI to tackle market interventionism
The EU Commission appears eager to reassure critics on both sides of the China market economy status debate in Europe that it is doing something. In fact it looks as if most China trade files are stuck, or at the very least advancing at snails’ pace. The EU and China …
Sri Lanka hopes to regain GSP Plus status in early 2017
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is in Brussels to negotiate on the island nation’s GSP Plus status. His is a delicate mission as the EU has set the bar high. Back in 2010, Sri Lanka lost the EU’s ‘extra’ preferential trade status given by the EU to developing economies that …
