News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
It’s been a slow start after Easter, but the trade policy machinery in Brussels is gradually getting back into gear. Turkey Only a few weeks into calmer waters a new storm broke out in the EU-Turkey relationship. While the news is about about protocol matters and Sofa Gate, one of …
Ever since preliminary talks with Turkey on ‘modernising’ its customs union with the European Union were initiated seven years ago, the issue has disappeared and resurfaced with the ebb and flow of a turbulent bilateral EU-Turkey relationship. The project was recently revived – so what’s at stake?
As everyone in Europe prepares for a second semi-locked down COVID-19 Easter, one must say it hasn’t been the most glorious of trade weeks for the European Union – except for a specific CETA performance.
To divert a phrase by former US Ambassador to the EU Anthony Garner: last week-end the United States Trade Representative defused some hand grenades, but kept some ticking.
It’s been one of those mega-weeks in trade again, culminating perhaps with Joe Biden beaming into the European Council last night to say hello. Nothing concrete came out of this meeting. Official statements indicate this was mostly about bonding and setting lofty common goals such as working together on COVID-19 …
European Union member states, who came together at a summit today, have given the green light to the resumption of a stalled trade conversation with Turkey. The move follows on a recent de-escalation of political tensions with Ankara over the East Mediterranean and a recommendation by the European Commission to …
The US and EU are talking again on critical trade files, but dialogue is picking up in a piecemeal way.
There is no more ducking the question in Europe of how to handle Taiwan. China increasingly asserts its clout over the South China Sea, Hong Kong and it is trying to do the same over Taiwan. Clearly the issue can no longer be brushed under the carpet in Brussels – …
The European Parliament is preparing a report on trade policy post COVID-19. The drafting is in the hands of the Belgian S&D group member Kathleen van Brempt and will help define the parliament’s positioning in several trade policy files in the coming months. A first version of the report is …
It’s been an eventful one and a half days on the foreign policy front – with significant implications for EU trade policy Here a little ‘quick and dirty’ update on where things stand. Airbus and steel and aluminium disputes on the immediate agenda of EU & US New USTR Katherine …
