News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Two big countries dominated the agenda on trade in Brussels this week: the United States and China. Both topics are not unrelated. In this regard, a lot happened in the WTO – see Jennifer’s stories here, here and here. Another topic that has kept EU leaders busy is the bloc’s …
Initiatives and discussions involving large groups of countries on issues such as electronic commerce and investment facilitation signal that global trade rules are set for a revamp, says Alan Wolff, deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization. “The WTO rulebook very likely will be updated to address current and …
With many people out of town skiing it’s been comparatively quiet in Brussels town itself. A lot happened actually outside of Brussels. Trade pros even got time to write #TradeValentines poems. EU and US join Japan in plans to take China to WTO over tech protectionism A new …
Last Friday, the European Commission sent out to member states and MEPs the second version of draft language on data flows for its coming free trade agreements after lengthy internal wrangling between its services. The text will be examined at technical level in the Council this week. A decision …
France’s stance on trade policy under President Emmanuel Macron has puzzled many. Yet Macron’s pragmatist logic is now starting to become clearer as his government finds its ground on the trade politics front back home and US President Donald Trump forces Paris to stay focused on the strategic dimension of …
Here a short midweek update on a variety of EU trade policy files: EU Mercosur Chief negotiators will meet on Friday in Brussels to translate technically the political signals exchanged during the meeting of Mercosur ministers hosted by the European Commission yesterday to help overcome what most observers …
EU member states are gradually accepting to exercise greater transparency in their joint trade policy making. The Council today released the negotiating mandate it gave the European Commission towards the modernisation of the 2002 EU-Chile Association Agreement, a very early move by member-state standards. The mandate itself reveals high EU …
The college of commissioners will meet tomorrow to decide how to deal with data flows in EU trade agreements. According to several sources close to the file, the European Commission might end up not dealing with the matter at all. Despite increasing calls from member states and the European …
It’s been an intense week again for EU trade. While trade agreements with far away countries like those in the Mercosur bloc have taken a hit, the trade focus is now clearly shifting closer to home, namely to Brexit. Brexit: Habemus Phase II It was widely expected. Member …
This article was updated to reflect the final list of signatories of the e-commerce declaration. The four-day ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires that is to end today is not delivering on ‘classic’ World Trade Organization outcomes, such as a trade liberalisation agreement comparable to the updated Information Technology Agreement …
