News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, April 28, 2025
The French government plans to put CETA to ratification in its national assembly in the second half of 2018. In the meantime Paris will work on means to introduce what it termed an “environmental veto” on investor-state disputes that could jeopardise climate policies, ministers announced today. The EU Canada …
The ‘Donald Trump effect’ is being played out in full in the World Trade Organization as tensions over trade remedies and the dispute settlement bodies rise. This week WTO members are gathering in a series of meetings on trade remedies and dispute settlement. The US continues to bloc the …
EU and Mexican trade negotiators are holding technical meetings in Brussels this week with the aim of making progress on updating their Global Agreement of 2001. EU sources report progress in the negotiations. But there are significant challenges ahead in achieving agreement on sensitive topics in the time frame …
EU officials are in Washington to try and build bridges with the United States administration on trade. Commission vice president Jyrki Katainen is leading the EU delegation, with trade officials like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero also in the US capital. The quest for …
The EU is preparing to table a new tariff offer to the South American trading bloc ahead of a new round of negotiations starting on Monday (2 October 2017). Eleven member states are attempting to put a brake on an offer to extend tariff rate quotes on beef, poultry, sugar, …
Trump or no Trump, TTIP or no TTIP: when regulators want to talk, they talk. This is what the ‘covered agreement’ on insurance and reinsurance between the US and EU formally signed today (21 September 2017) reveals. The move comes as formal and informal exchanges between EU and US officials …
As CETA comes into force provisionally on Thursday (21 September 2017), the following countries have ratified the EU Canadian trade agreement, Portugal being the latest one: Portugal (20 September) Czech Republic (13 September 2017) Malta (19 July 2017) Croatia (30 June 2017) Spain (29 June 2017) Denmark (1 June …
Not every day is scoop bonanza in trade policy. One of these days seems to be today. But there are a few files sizzling in the background that will lead to further stories down the road. CETA day coming Of course, tomorrow, 21 September, CETA is coming into …
The expert commission on CETA set up by the French government to assess the agreement’s impact on EU environmental and health effects published its report on Friday (8 September 2016). It makes ten recommendations for further action on the EU Canada trade agreement. Follow-up moves by the French government will …
Sneaky. But unsurprising. France’s constitutional council delivered its verdict on the EU Canada CETA free trade agreement in the depths of summer. On the very last day of July 2017, France’s so-called ‘wise men’ disclosed that they had strictly no objections to the controversial trade deal which more than …
