News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
The European Commission recently released minutes of bilateral meetings held under the EU Vietnam free trade agreement and the EU Singapore free trade agreements last July. The delayed publication is due to the fact that minutes needed to be agreed by both parties. Here is what these minutes reveal.
The European Commission released ‘digital trade agreement’ text it intends to negotiate with Singapore and with South Korea. It ignores some of these countries’ key priorities for digital trade.
The European Commission is requesting a formal mandate from EU member states to start negotiations to upgrade existing free trade agreements with Korea and Singapore by including legally binding new rules on digital trade.
The four countries of the European Free Trade Area are entering the new Singapore-led digital trade agreement bandwagon.
Below, a few key developments in EU trade this week as we await the outcome of a jumbo-trilogue on the EU’s climate package that will decide on the final shape of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism. By Rob Francis and Iana Dreyer.
Wonder where we are in a range of free trade agreement negotiations of the EU? Here’s a short update on selected trade agreements.
The European Services Forum’s managing director Pascal Kerneis discussed EU-Singapore trade relations with Iana Dreyer’s Borderlex. So what is at stake with the coming revision of their 2019 free trade agreement and with the planned Digital Partnership Agreement?
AUGUST RECESS AT BORDERLEX: As of Monday 1 August, the small team at Borderlex will be on a break from trade news reporting as the policy machineries in Brussels, London and Geneva themselves grind to a halt for the summer. We will be back during the week of 22 August. …
S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations spoke to Borderlex’s founder Iana Dreyer about his country’s’ vision for 21st century trade policy and how the European Union fits in all this. The conversation covers digital, tackling supply chain issues and the climate challenge.
Is this the European Union’s approach to ‘digital partnerships’ in the Indo-Pacific just fluff? At the very least one can say it is much too timid.
