This will perhaps be the quietest of all three holiday-heavy weeks spanning Easter in late April to Europe Day this coming Thursday. But it is only the quiet before the storm. Next week will be manic – so let’s use this one to recharge batteries ahead of a second half …
Agriculture
Cambodian rice producers sue European Union over rice safeguards
In January 2019, the European Union reintroduced restrictive quotas on imports of rice from Cambodia and Myanmar following a complaint from Italy that these were harming its own rice growers. Cambodian rice farmers won’t just let that pass. So-called Indica rice from the two countries is now subject to a …
Beyond Brussels: Brazil accepts to forego WTO developing country status
Two alpha-males met in Washington yesterday and displayed their mastery of the Art of the Deal. But it’s worth looking at at the fine print of the Brazil-United States understanding reached last night.
Blog: Brexit and agriculture TRQs dominate week in WTO
Geneva officials are busy with meetings at the World Trade Organization. Ahead of Friday’s General Council meeting where we can expect a big showdown on all things Appellate Body and WTO ‘reform’, here a short update on some other committee meetings held so far this week. The focus was Brexit …
EU and Argentina bury hatchet over biodiesel duties
The EU and Argentina ended six years of disagreements over the South American country’s exports of biodiesel to the bloc with a compromise that averts years of litigation in courts.
Commission decision on US soy comes in handy for biodiesel producers
The ongoing trade ‘negotiations’ between the European Union and the United States are a good opportunity to try to resolve old gripes that the US holds against the EU’s import regime. One of the irritants the European Commission has tried to defuse under the shadow of a US threat to …
A week in Brussels: BDI blasts US-EU trade talk format, trilateral, farm exports
This week has mainly been about everyone getting back to work. The EU’s top priority is the transatlantic relationship. Trade chief Cecilia Malmström, visiting Washington in the early days of January, signals just that. But were there actually any new developments this week on the planned trade deals? Not really, as …
Will commission break limbo on Myanmar and Cambodia rice safeguards?
EU governments are split in the face of proposals by the European Commission to reapply import protections on rice from Cambodia and Myanmar following an import surge from these countries. The two Asian countries, which qualify as least-developed countries, benefit from duty-free imports of rice under the EU’s General System …
Commission to table safeguards on rice imports from Myanmar, Cambodia
The European Commission is mulling safeguard measures against rice from Cambodia and Myanmar, two of Asia’s poorest countries benefiting from the bloc’s Everything-but-Arms trade preferences.
Quotas in EU free trade agreements don’t deliver the goods
The European Commission released a report on the implementation of its free trade agreements. While the report confirms that trade tends to increase under a bilateral preferential accord, not every aspect of a trade deal functions the way it should.
