News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
There’s little that is really new to report on the Foreign Affairs Council meeting held today in Brussels. The EU is not nurturing strong hopes to be exempted from import restrictions from the United States. Australia and New Zealand trade negotiations to begin by July As expected the …
There have been a few developments and clarifications on the variety of bilateral free trade agreements under way in the EU in recent days. So here are some updates on where things stand with Mexico, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. EU-Mexico ‘agreement in principle’ – next steps …
European antisubsidy duties on a Pakistani plastics ingredient that expired three years ago breach global trade rules, the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body said today, upholding a previous ruling. The fact that the tariffs have lapsed means no action is required by either Islamabad or Brussels. But appeals judges’ …
The European Commission today initiated the ratification process of the EU’s trade agreements with Japan and Singapore. The Singapore pact, concluded in 2014, was subject to a lengthy judicial process that resulted in a May 2017 ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU identifying where the bloc …
This week, the the policy churn in Brussels will mainly be about what to do about Donald Trump’s trade policies. Some progress might be made when the EU and Mexico sit down for another negotiating round aimed at updating their trade deal, and European lawmakers in Strasbourg will vote on a …
This week was comparatively quiet. It was Easter, after all. There’s been some movement on the wider global trade war front. Don’t forget to read up on our two articles here and here. The headlines of these articles’ may say ‘China’ or ‘Japan’, but the pieces include a lot …
On Monday, seven World Trade Organization members raised concerns about the EU’s new Renewable Energy Directive during a goods committee meeting. In January, the European Parliament voted to ban palm oil from the bloc’s targets for consumption of renewable energy for transport by 2021, in a shift away from earlier …
EU free trade negotiations, ratifications and mandate releases have been on the slow lane recently compared to other trade policy files, as President Donald Trump and Brexit grab headlines and policymakers’ attention. Here’s an overview of where we are on the various files. Mercosur EU-Mercosur FTA negotiations are …
Almost all of the more than 50 World Trade Organization members that India invited to next week’s “mini-ministerial” plan to attend, but the two-day meeting is expected to accomplish little to tackle problems that have dogged the WTO for years. India decided to hold the informal gathering after the …
There’s about one year to go before its top leadership gets renewed. Yet the European Commission risks missing out on the early harvest it reaped in its free trade agreement negotiations with ASEAN members in the first years of this legislature, writes Iana Dreyer. The EU’s executive is trying …
