This week’s midterm election will probably have little impact on the Trump administration’s trade policies, though the Democrats have a role to play in ratifying the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and oversight of new trade negotiations.
EU FTAs & bilateral ties
Update: Friday’s trade ministers’ meeting, EU-US, Mercosur, investment screening
The Brussels trade bubble is focusing on what will happen at the ‘FAC Trade’ on Friday. The biannual trade ministers’ meeting is above all a stocktaking and brainstorming exercise. The culminating point will be the traditional lunch, where the conversation will focus on EU-US trade relations. Apart from transatlantic relations, …
Singapore IPA: Commission tells MEPs cancelling existing bilateral BITs is first priority
MEPs are preparing the ground to ratify the EU-Singapore free trade and investment protection agreements in the hope this can be done early next year. “We have kept waiting our Singaporean friends for quite some time,” David Martin, rapporteur on ASEAN trade, said during today’s trade committee meeting. The original …
MEPs set EU-Japan EPA on track for December ratification
Members of the European Parliament’s international trade committee gave the green light today to the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. The landmark deal is expected to cover a third of global output and is among the most commercially ambitious trade accords in the world. It substantially liberalises trade in goods and …
Quotas in EU free trade agreements don’t deliver the goods
The European Commission released a report on the implementation of its free trade agreements. While the report confirms that trade tends to increase under a bilateral preferential accord, not every aspect of a trade deal functions the way it should.
A week in Brussels: Ottawa, Brexit governance, no harnessing globalisation
A comparatively ‘quiet’ week in Brussels on trade. The week was eventful on the WTO and multilateral trade front, with Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs, Canada’s mini WTO reform summit, and the UK’s WTO tariff schedule dominating the headlines. Ottawa WTO meeting sets ball rolling on reform As expected, …
Beyond Brussels: Chain reaction to Section 232 duties picks up speed
US duties on steel and aluminium are not only taking a toll on countries across the globe, but they’re triggering a “wave of direct and indirect actions and reactions” that is likely to expand in the coming weeks and months. “Obviously one country’s action becomes the second country’s reason to …
Will the US slap auto tariffs on EU if it doesn’t get its way on agriculture?
The US is threatening to levy high auto tariffs on EU firms via the Section 232 national security exception if Brussels does not agree to liberalise agriculture markets, several sources indicated to Borderlex. But how credible is that threat? And if the US gets real on this threat, in what form …
EU post-Section 232 steel safeguard measures criticised in WTO meeting
The EU’s safeguard measures on steel, introduced this summer to avoid deflection of pipes, wires and rods following Washington’s decision to impose 25% steel tariffs on national security grounds, is raising hackles with trading partners. Seven World Trade Organization members expressed their grievances in Geneva today against the bloc’s decision …
Flash: Japan, Korea, Singapore, EU US updates
The long Asia-focused trade week in Brussels is finishing late on a Friday with a salvo of new announcements. Here a quick roundup. Juncker-Abe meeting During a bilateral meeting with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo is readying itself to ratify the recently signed EU …
