Much has been said about the recent termination by India of its bilateral investment treaty with the Netherlands’s contribution to the stalling of attempts to revive and EU-India free trade accord (BTIA). In fact it’s not the terminations that are determinant here. It’s the substance of the FTA. India …
South Asia & ASEAN
Trump factor: Commission also sees opportunity to advance own trade agenda
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Trade remedies among top topics on table in EU Indonesia agreement kick-off talks
At a time when EU antidumping methodologies face repeated setbacks either in the WTO or in the Court of Justice of the EU – as highlighted with the latest Appellate Body report on EU duties on Argentinean biofuels – trade remedies have featured highly in the two-day meetings held between the …
Singapore BIT terminations under question in Court of Justice case on EUSFTA
A detailed report on the EU Law Analysis blog of the first hearing in the Court of Justice of the EU ahead of an eagerly anticipated legal opinion regarding the scope of the EU’s exclusive competence to conclude its 2013 free trade agreement with Singapore reveals that member state bilateral …
Vietnam and business asked to wait until 2018 for FTA ratification
Vietnam concluded an FTA with the EU in late 2015 and is keen on seeing it coming into force as soon as possible. Whereas the Commission is trying to ensure another agreement concluded almost at the same time as the Vietnam deal – CETA with Canada – gets ratified and can come …
ECJ annuls Indonesia and Argentina biodiesel antidumping duties
The Court of Justice of the European Union has asked the European Commission to annul current antidumping duties applied to biodiesel from Indonesia and from Argentina.
Sri Lanka on lengthy path to regain GSP Plus status
Since Sri Lanka has applied to regain its lost GSP Plus status. The government that came into power last year is aiming to break with the previous Rajapaska government’s track record on governance and human rights. After atrocities committed against the Tamil rebellion in 2009, the EU suspended the extra …
