News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
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 …
When Canada lodged its sweeping case against US tariffs at the World Trade Organization last month, it cited almost 200 examples of alleged wrongdoing against trading partners including Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Brazil and India. Despite talk of an EU-US ‘trade war’, and although the complaint was filed in a …
The centre-left S&D group, led by the chairman of the international trade committee, Bernd Lange, is in a renewed push for the EU to make the labour and environment provisions in its free trade agreements more enforceable, namely through potential commercial sanctions. The European Commission continues to resist, but is …
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party CDU and her Bavarian counterpart, the CSU, reached an initial agreement on broad principles with the Social Democratic SPD party late last week aimed at forming a government following elections in September 2017. The 28-page document, which ends several weeks of scoping …
Welcome back to our A week in Brussels Friday column! Happy New Year! The first week of the year is generally quiet when it comes to policy and trade in Brussels and elsewhere. This week hasn’t been different. But here, a few useful things garnered over the break for …
Happy New Year, dear subscribers! The year 2018 will offer a very narrow window of opportunity to bring key EU trade policy files forward. On the EU’s plate this year: finalise trade negotiations with Mexico and Mercosur, get key trade agreements with Singapore, Vietnam and Japan through the European …
The EU and Mercosur are trying hard to get their deal trade done in the coming weeks. The atmosphere among negotiators and in the EU is frenetic as the 31st round of negotiations opens in Brussels on Wednesday. Tensions are running high as competing interests between the parties and …
The European Parliament’s trade committee endorsed a report initiated by Marietje Schaake calling for an EU digital trade strategy and for expediting policies to secure free flows of data across borders. The Schaake report makes recommendations to policymakers on e-commerce, net neutrality and online consumer protection, among others. The …
Today EU member states gathered around the Commission to take stock of various free trade agreement files. Here a run through what we have gathered at the foreign affairs Council and during the past week in Brussels. EU Mercosur and EU Mexico free trade negotiations “We are now entering …
The European Commission released a report on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, a pot of public money set up ten years ago to help workers in distressed sectors retrain and find new jobs. The press announcement states proudly that this report proves the fund’s “effectiveness”. In 2015 and 2016, …
