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, …
South Asia & ASEAN
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 …
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. …
Blog: EU, Ukraine, WTO, Singapore roundup
There’s been a frenzy of EU trade related activity this week. It looks like it’s a big rush before the summer lull. Here a curation of what we found interesting. EU and WTO round-up The EU is pressing its fellow WTO members on fisheries subsidies ahead of the Buenos Aires …
2017 trade barriers report singles out Russia, India, Switzerland
In a new report, the Commission singled out Russia, India and Switzerland as sources of new barriers to European traders and investors in 2017, while it claimed success in contributing to the removal of various barriers, notably in South Korea and China. The report is the seventh of such nature based on the Commission’s Market …
In brief: Sri Lanka gets GSP+ back, Philippines fears losing it
Sri Lanka regained its lost ‘GSP Plus’ status on Friday (19 May 2017). The country lost the preferential market access status in 2010 following government human right abuses in the context of its crackdown on the Tamil Tiger rebellion. Since 2015, the new government under Ranil Wickremesinghe has fought hard …
ECJ says investor-state dispute settlement not exclusive EU remit
The long-awaited ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU on the division of competences between Brussels and the member states on the content of the 2013/2014 free trade agreement with Singapore settles many perpetual power tussles between Brussels and the capitals on a variety of trade-related topics. The …
India: EU “awaiting reply” on trade dialogue after BIT upset
The EU has not been successful in convincing India to relaunch long-stalled bilateral free trade negotiations. Nor has it been able to stop New Delhi from cancelling its bilateral investment treaties with individual EU member states. So far, there seems no way out of the impasse, a letter written by trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström …
Philippines FTA: EU lets go on talks
The EU Commission is putting free trade talks with the Philippines on halt. In practice, this means it is not setting a new date for a new round of free trade negotiations given concerns over the country’s human rights record. FTA talks with the Philippines were launched in 2016 and are part …
