President elect Donal Trump has been putting together his transitional advisory team. The advisors he chose largely reflect views Mr Trump himself aired throughout his election campaign. We have: one Republican calling for NAFTA renegotiation, a steel magnate irate about China, and an economist accusing China of all ills, …
North America
De Gucht: TTIP is dead
Former EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht, who launched the transatlantic TTIP negotiations in 2013, said “TTIP, at least for the time being, is dead”. This is in reaction to the election of Donald Trump to become the 45th US president of the United States, and ahead of gathering …
Quick take: So it’s Trump
There will be a lot of ink shed on what a Trump presidency means for US trade policy, for TPP, and, in Europe, for TTIP. The fact is: we do not know. In the short term all these projects will not likely move ahead. More fundamentally, trade policy might be …
Blog: What if it’s Trump – and what if it isn’t?
There are two must-read papers for European (and other) trading partners of the United States while we wait, transfixed, for the result of the most fateful presidential elections in our time: the Peterson Institute’s Assessing Trade Agendas in the US Presidential Campaign and Richard Katz’s Is the TPP Making the United …
In brief: Anti CETA and TTIP protests not abating
Is the final green light to CETA signature given by the Walloon government late October radicalising the anti CETA and TTIP protest movement? There are signs this is the case. On Thursday evening demonstrators put on a big anti CETA show in front of the EU Parliament on place du …
Analysis – After CETA: what next for the deal and for EU trade policy?
The dramatic CETA episode has clearly weakened the Commission’s hand in trade policy, and dented the EU’s reputation as a reliable partner, Iana Dreyer finds. So the EU has managed to obtain unanimous backing by its 28 member states of the CETA agreement with Canada after all. The flagship …
Belgian compromise: Wallonia can still veto CETA
The Belgian media RTBF released the final text of the compromise hammered out between Wallonia, other regional entities in Belgium, and the Belgian federal government, on CETA today after three days of marathon talks in the small country that hosts the EU institutions. The deal paves the way for Belgian signature …
CETA: Wallonia obtains right to pull out, safeguard clauses
The government of Wallonia and the federal government of Belgium have reached an agreement on Wednesday (26 October 2016) afternoon that is expected to pave the way for a signature of CETA between the EU and Canada. But the final details of the deal are yet to be hammered out …
Early possible scenarios for CETA
Belgium is still not in a position to endorse the signing of CETA. Despite this announcement, following a telephone conversation between Council president Donald Tusk and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada and the EU have decided not yet to cancel a bilateral summit scheduled on Thursday (27 October 2016), …
