The EU and Mercosur are trying hard to get their deal trade done in the coming weeks. The atmosphere among negotiators and in the EU is frenetic as the 31st round of negotiations opens in Brussels on Wednesday. Tensions are running high as competing interests between the parties and …
Mercosur
Week ahead in EU trade: Mexico, Mercosur, steel forum, Africa summit, WTO
This is a big week for EU trade negotiators, who will be putting their collective noses to the grindstone as they work toward a year-end goal to clinch agreements with Mexico and Mercosur. Momentum is building for the parties to be able to announce at the World Trade Organization’s December …
A week in Brussels
Welcome to a new weekly column ‘A week in Brussels’ with the highlights of the trade week in Brussels. I hope you enjoy it! The trade week in Brussels ends with an understated Eastern Partnership summit. It brings together of a group of disparate countries traumatised by the Ukraine crisis …
EU-Mercosur: Negotiators set sights on Buenos Aires WTO ministerial
EU and Mercosur negotiators agreed to prolong for another seven days a marathon two-week round of negotiations scheduled to start on 27 November. This means there will be a three-week stretch to get close to a deal before the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, on the sidelines …
Mercosur talks enter choppy waters ahead of final exchange of offers
“Both sides are doing their homework at the moment,” a Mercosur official told Borderlex. The European Union and the South American bloc are preparing a final exchange of politically highly sensitive market-access offers in free trade negotiations that the European Commission wants to declare concluded by year-end. Confidence that …
Update on Mercosur, Mexico, Japan, new architecture, TSD, data, Korea
Today EU member states gathered around the Commission to take stock of various free trade agreement files. Here a run through what we have gathered at the foreign affairs Council and during the past week in Brussels. EU Mercosur and EU Mexico free trade negotiations “We are now entering …
Mercosur and Mexico trade agreements: the quest for a sugar fix
There is intensive lobbying by European sugar beet growers against the prospect of widening of EU quotas for non EU cane sugar as part of ongoing bilateral free trade negotiations. Yet it might only be a matter of time until the EU allows more import of cane sugar from outside …
Week ahead in EU trade – Mercosur, Council, Moldova, digital, Trump factor
If last week was quiet in Brussels on trade, this week will be overloaded with trade policy meetings. A new round of EU Mercosur free trade negotiations is taking place in Brasilia this week. Mercosur will also be central to the agriculture and fisheries Council meeting held today …
Mercosur: EU tables dispute settlement review clause for labour and environment
The EU Commission made public the terms of the dispute settlement mechanism it tabled during the last round of trade negotiations with Mercosur in early October 2017 in Brasilia for the planned ‘sustainable development’ chapter. The EU body also released its assessment of this round of talks, revealing the most …
In brief: European Council – Mercosur, data flows
The heads of EU governments who met on Thursday and Friday (19 and 20 October 2017) in Brussels agreed on a working agenda for the next two years and on Britain’s departure from the EU. Significant policy signals were sent on crucial trade policy files, namely free trade negotiations with …