News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, April 26, 2025
The EU is set to introduce ‘future’ costs of compliance with environmental and labour treaties in its calculation of injury margins in trade-defence cases. The bloc is now making systematic its consideration of a trading partner’s compliance with International Labour Organization and ‘multilateral environmental’ conventions, including the 2015 Paris Agreement …
The European Parliament will once again examine in plenary a compromise text on ‘dual-use’ export control reached in the international trade committee on Thursday, before it is sent back to the European Commission and member states. On 23 October, MEPs mainly from the centre-right ultimately refused to send the final …
Welcome to a new weekly column ‘A week in Brussels’ with the highlights of the trade week in Brussels. I hope you enjoy it! The trade week in Brussels ends with an understated Eastern Partnership summit. It brings together of a group of disparate countries traumatised by the Ukraine crisis …
The European Commission has released a new ‘aid for trade’ strategy. After spending close to €97 billion in trade-related aid between 2007 and 2015, the EU is now reassessing its priorities. Brussels’ new focus will be on helping as a priority the world’s least developed countries and fragile states. …
The EU is preparing to launch negotiations to modernise a 2002 Association Agreement with Chile that includes a free trade agreement. Trade MEPs agreed on their wish list for the negotiations during a trade committee vote on Tuesday (11 July 2017). Agreement did not go without a small amendment game over the issue of …
The EU is adding a new dimension to its trade policy: empowering women. That involves pioneering a gender chapter in the coming new EU-Chile free trade agreement.
The first draft of the European Parliament’s report on the EU’s current plans to overhaul its 2009 dual use export regulation goes further than the Commission’s initial proposals. The new dual use export control policy of the EU will expand export licensing requirements for certain technologies to situations where exports could …
The EU Commission is putting free trade talks with the Philippines on halt. In practice, this means it is not setting a new date for a new round of free trade negotiations given concerns over the country’s human rights record. FTA talks with the Philippines were launched in 2016 and are part …
The European Parliament has started working on EU plans to review its export control legislation. The legislative process initiated can be expect to be messy as it significantly extends the scope of situations to which exports controls of so-called dual-use technologies could apply. The move puts the EU on …
The EU will examine three countries under its GSP Plus scheme in early December: the Philippines, Pakisan and Sri Lanka. The Philippines have come into the crosshairs of those concerned about recently elected president Duterte’s human rights track record. Duterte’s ordering of extra-judicial killings in a bloody crack-down on drugs-related crime has raised …
