News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, May 1, 2025
It took almost two years. In the summer 2018, the EU and Mexico announced they had concluded a wide-ranging renegotiation of a now twenty-year-old trade pact, pending a risky major negotiation ahead: market access in the area of public procurement. So much happened in the meantime, including an election in …
EU-South Africa frozen chicken dispute notched up one level further After 18 months of consultations the EU decided to request a formal panel in its long-standing dispute with the Southern African Developing Community over the latter’s safeguard on imports of frozen bone-in chicken. The EU criticises the data and the …
If this were not the COVID-19 lockdown period, the EU’s new trade defence duties on glass fibre fabrics – decided upon last week and published on Monday in the Official Journal – would have received much more media attention.
The European Union and the United States are focusing on getting over the coronavirus pandemic. But on trade, they are still ‘talking’, so to speak. Today the talk coming out of the EU is mildly tougher than usual. The EU announced a modest set of ‘rebalancing’ measures taken in response …
It’s that time of the year. The publication of the National Trade Estimate report by the US Trade Representative is a yearly ritual and must-read by any trade policy wonk in the world. Even non-US diplomats and policy makers sneakily look up the monumental 500-page annual document that lists all …
Today EU member states gave their final assent to the EU Vietnam free trade agreement – the move was delayed by a few weeks due to the disturbances in the EU meeting calendar brought by the COVID-19 situation. The flagship trade pact with the South East Asian emerging market is …
The European Union is revising for a second time its steel import safeguard which it formally introduced in February 2019. Turkey is now potentially complicating the process. Imports of steel from across the world were restricted following the United States’ decision to introduce high tariffs on steel imports on national …
It should have been a formality. The EU Vietnam free trade agreement was due to be adopted at a meeting of trade ministers that was cancelled last week. This move followed on a decision by the Council not to hold ‘non essential’ Council meetings in Brussels in order to contain …
It was quiet in Brussels this week. Winter holidays played a part – the coronavius probably less so. The main focus was the post-Brexit EU UK trade relationship, which we covered quite extensively this week. A European Parliament delegation flew out to Australia to talks trade relations….There are rumours of …
The European Union is preparing to re-launch free trade agreement negotiations with Thailand, a key member of the South East Asian grouping ASEAN.
