Below, a few key developments in EU trade this week as we await the outcome of a jumbo-trilogue on the EU’s climate package that will decide on the final shape of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism. By Rob Francis and Iana Dreyer.
EU FTAs & bilateral ties
EU-ASEAN summit puts stuttering FTA agenda back on radar screen
The first EU ASEAN summit, gathering heads of state and government from the ten South East Asian Nations and the twenty seven EU member states plus the head of the Council and the European Commission was mainly a very symbol-laden act that cements recent efforts at greater political rapprochement between …
WTO panel rules US Section 232 steel, aluminium tariffs illegal
Panellists in the dispute settlement cases brought by China, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey in an almost coordinated fashion after 2018 could no longer delay the publication of perhaps the politically most salient case in the World Trade Organization’s twenty-seven year history: the United States Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs. …
EU, Chile seal trade deal upgrade
Chile and the European Union sealed a long-awaited package to upgrade a twenty-year old Association Agreement. The deal is a strategic move for the EU in its quest for greater critical raw materials security. For Chile the announcement of the agreement comes as its political institutions are finalising their ratification …
Blog: That “tangible” TTC outcome
A bit of sarcasm can’t do any harm, right?
Comment: EU US Trade and Technology Council better at delivering outside than within its framework
The amount of energy going into the EU US Trade and Technology Council in the Brussels bubble is astounding. It’s at times as if nothing else counted: everyone is obsessed with it. Will the TTC have delivered more on what happened outside its formal framework than within?
China seeks tech-and-trade conversation with continuously divided EU
Nobody will have missed the news of European Council president Charles Michel’s solo trip to China on Thursday. The trip revealed the EU’s entrenched internal rifts over China. It can be read as the post-pandemic restart of a very difficult domestic European conversation about China.
German parliament approves CETA
Germany is the first among the ‘big’ EU member states to be on track to ratify the trade agreement with Canada commonly known as CETA. The country’s parliament’s ratification approval today comes after years of domestic debate and many misgivings in Germany about the trade agreement – in particular its …
Indonesia nickel export ban: another WTO appeal into the void?
The EU won single-handedly its legal case brought against Indonesia’s export ban on nickel in a panel ruling released today. But Indonesia is expected to ignore the ruling and appeal the case to a non-existing appellate body at the WTO in Geneva.
EU Korea pledge to stick to subsidy fair play, launch digital partnership
It’s been long in coming, but the EU Republic of Korea Digital Partnership was finally announced today at a bilateral leaders’ meeting between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol.
