Colombia’s tax regime and local monopolies for alcohol sales will be on trial at the World Trade Organization. Despite a free trade agreement in place since 2013, EU – and in particular British – spirits producers are not satisfied with the competitive environment made for them in the South …
LatAm & Caribbean
Parliament readies to okay Ecuador accession to FTA with Colombia and Peru
The trade committee of the European Parliament is getting ready to greenlight Ecuador’s accession to a 2012 free trade agreement in force between the EU on the one hand and Colombia and Peru on the other. Ecuador’s accession process to the deal, initiated in 2014, dragged on as further negotiations with Peru and …
Malmström asks Council to fast-forward Ecuador FTA decision
Commissioner Malmström is trying to accelerate the ratification of Ecuador’s planned accession to the 2012 free trade agreement between the EU and Peru and Colombia by asking the member states to fast track their decision. The move was made ahead of a visit to Brussels by Ecuador’s Vice President Jorge Glas and its Minister of Foreign Trade of Ecuador Juan Carlos …
Spanish and French MEPs on collision course with Commission over Ecuador banana stabilization mechanism
Bananas only interest a minority of trade aficionados. And Latin American bananas even less. But these tend to be the source of major international legal and political conflicts involving the EU. That was the case in the WTO in the 1990s and 2000s when Central Americans and Ecuador sued the EU, …
Parliament report: EU trade deals increase money laundering risk
A new research report commissioned by the European Parliament argues that free trade agreements increase the risk of money laundering. The report, Commissioned after the Panama Papers affair this spring, says that EU free trade agreements with emerging markets such as South Africa, Chile, Mexico, Central America, or South Korea …
Argentina’s Macri seeks reassurance on EU Mercosur deal
There is nothing concrete to expect out of the meetings Argentinean President Mauricio Macri has held in Paris this week-end and in Brussels today. Buenos Aires is seeking reassurance that the EU Mercosur negotiations, relaunched in May, will go ahead, despite the likelihood of the United Kindgom leaving the EU …
