The European Commission announced a general tightening of its global steel safeguard on 14 August in the afternoon – in other words, when nearly everybody in Brussels and Geneva was on holiday. The timing of the announcement is not entirely innocent; had the measures been announced in September, there would …
Vietnam
EU member states give green light to Vietnam trade and investment pacts
It took three and a half years since the negotiations were first finalised, but here we are: the EU’s member states has given the green light to the EU Vietnam free trade agreement and investment protection agreement. This paves the way for official signature and the ratification process in the …
Week in Brussels: Vietnam, banana pesticides, ISDS awards and state aid
This week we saw developments on the EU China market economy case, Mercosur, the UK GSP scheme, fishing and Korea. What else happened?
Week Ahead in EU trade: E-commerce, Vietnam, Indonesia
The main EU trade policy items to watch out for this week are: e-commerce, Indonesian FTA, Vietnam FTA and IPA.
EU Vietnam agreements – presidency hopes to clear FTA by end June
The Romanian presidency of the European Union is hoping to see the EU Vietnam free trade agreement agreed by member states and ready for signature with Hanoi by the end of June. Bucharest appears less confident a separate investment protection agreement can be agreed by the Council by the same …
A week in Brussels: Brexit, IPI, where is the Vietnam FTA?
So, dear friends, we are going into a week-end with the United Kingdom ready to default into a no-deal Brexit on 12 April. Or most likely there will be a long extension of its EU membership, and potentially general (and European) elections…. This week was dominated by wrangles between France …
Vietnam-based EU businesses warn investments could turn sour if trade pact falls through
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 …
Week in Brussels: Vietnam FTA, Korea labour dispute, Indonesia FTA update
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 …
Week ahead in EU trade: Asian FTAs, GSP, Section 232
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 …
‘Horizontal safeguard regulation’ helps clear hurdle of Asian FTA ratification
It was meant to be largely a technical exercise. It turned out to be more political than expected. The European Union is about to adopt a new regulation on safeguards on imports that will apply equally to all its new bilateral free trade agreements. A final compromise among the three …
