News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Plans towards a European Chips Act are maturing. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a new regulation mirroring similarly named recent United States legislation will be tabled as soon as early February. Brussels’ move in the semiconductor sector heralds a much more politically controlled approach to supply chain …
The EU and Singapore will soon formally start preparing the ground to start negotiations towards a digital partnership agreement. These ‘scoping’ talks will be held within the framework of an already existing two-year-old bilateral free trade agreement and form part of a dedicated working group under the deal’s Joint Committee.
The United States and the five European countries that have enacted digital services taxes agreed a tax-and-tariff truce during USTR Katherine Tai’s ongoing visit to Europe and ahead of Friday’s G7 trade ministers meeting in the United Kingdom.
“Lessons of TTIP have been learned,” said Monique Goyens, the director-general of the highly influential EU consumer protection organisation BEUC at an online webinar last Wednesday (13 October 2021).
The European Commission and External Action Service are planning to unveil a proposal to start Digital Economy Partnership Agreement negotiations with Korea, Japan and Singapore as part of the European Union’s new Indo-Pacific strategy. The EU is also considering launching data privacy legislation “adequacy” negotiations with India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, …
The European Commission’s plans to press ahead with a ‘digital levy’ despite agreement at international level on taxation of companies trading across borders is not only annoying the United States, but also the European Union’s very own corporate sector, which fears trade retaliation and loss of competitiveness.
The Biden administration is genuinely committed to a partnership with the European Union on issues related to the digital economy. But making new ‘trade and tech’ initiatives announced in the wake of the EU-US summit work will require swift movement and a lot of resources. A conversation with Frances Burwell.
The announcement of a new EU-US Trade and Technology Council at the EU-US summit in Brussels this week was generally well received by relevant stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic. But the new transatlantic body is still merely a concept on paper – and little is known about how …
European Parliament sets up new UK Contact Group; EU Vietnam civil society dialogue postponed until further notice; France, Germany and Netherlands want even tougher rules on company takeovers by digital platforms.
The European Union and the United States are preparing to host their first bilateral summit in years, with president Biden coming in person to Brussels mid-June to seek to boost the transatlantic relationship. The political noises around a variety of ‘trade’ and ‘trade-and-tech’ files that will make it to the …
