News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
The EU is threatening to suspend imports from Cambodia due to human and labour right violations. But the products under discussion for suspension are precisely those where the EU has a track record of entrenched protectionism. This looks like a clear case of double standards, opines Iana Dreyer.
European businesses operating in Vietnam warn that their investments might turn sour if the EU Vietnam Free Trade Agreement does not come into force this year. The move comes as the pact faces renewed delays in Brussels. Parliament postpones work on Vietnam pacts On Monday, the chairman of the European Parliament’s …
This week was all about transatlantic trade, biodiesel (here and here), the CETA investment court, Brexit preparedness and UK FTA rollovers. Below other important news. EU-Japan FTA comes into force Business and governments in the EU and Japan are cheering. The largest-ever trade agreement so far came into force today. Here, our …
It’s been an intense week! The EU was involved in the launch of plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce (Jennifer will have more) in Switzerland. That will be a boost to the World Trade Organization. Southeast Asia also featured highly on the agenda as a ministerial meeting was held this week amid rows …
Seeing that the World bTrade Organization survives, and that its dispute settlement function survives, remains independent and keeps is ‘bite’, is one of the EU’s current strategic priorities. In practice, the WTO dispute settlement system will weaken regardless of EU efforts to amend it, and the bloc will increasingly take …
The EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations announced plans yesterday to upgrade their relationship to a ‘strategic partnership’. But palm oil and human rights disagreements continue to put sand in the wheels of the bilateral cooperation machinery. Strategic partner status tends to mean little in practice. For the …
European Union quotas on imports of 26 steel product categories that have been in place provisionally since July will become definitive after member states gave the green light to the move today in Brussels. The European Commission also decided to go ahead with imposing safeguards on Indica rice from Cambodia …
This week’s top stories: Britain and services in the WTO, a big bazooka in the WTO’s dispute settlement body, a Japan deal at risk of falling victim to German and other social-democratic political decline, member states wrangling over rice imports from Myanmar and Cambodia. But also these stories here: Top …
EU governments are split in the face of proposals by the European Commission to reapply import protections on rice from Cambodia and Myanmar following an import surge from these countries. The two Asian countries, which qualify as least-developed countries, benefit from duty-free imports of rice under the EU’s General System …
G20 fallout December 2018 will be remembered as a decisive moment in European trade policy. Leaders came back to Europe from the G20 in Argentina over the week-end without securing a commitment by the big leaders to fight protectionism – although WTO reform is on the agenda of the world’s …
