News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, April 25, 2025
With things suspiciously quiet on both the Mercosur and Mexico trade talk fronts, the biggest news concerning Brussels this week may be coming from Luxembourg, where the Court of Justice rules on the legality of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties. The week’s headlines will most likely be dominated by the looming …
There is a sense of disillusionment in the upper echelons of the European Commission at the announcement that the president of the United States is planning to slap an all-round tariff on steel and aluminium imports that would affect more than 6 billion euros worth of European exports. Among …
The EU’s top leadership reacted promptly to announcements in the US media that President Donald Trump will go ahead with slapping punitive import tariffs on steel. Trade retaliation of some form is expected from Brussels. The EU promises World Trade Organization-compatible moves. But here, the options are relatively limited, lawyers …
The central topic on the minds of trade ministers during their informal meeting in snowy Sofia on Tuesday was the United States’s trade policies. The EU is readying a differentiated response to any possible import duties US President Donald Trump could apply to European steel and aluminium. In February, …
US proposals on how to punish foreign steel and aluminium exporters for unfair trade practices miss the point and would do more harm than good, European Aluminium says. Global excess capacity – specifically in China – is the “root cause of the main challenges” that the aluminium industry faces …
This week’s trade highlights of the week have been: Latin America, the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement, trade defence and the EU’s multilateral investment court plans. Deal or no deal in Mercosur, that is the question The EU has been negotiating hard with both Mercosur and Mexico this week …
The world’s leading economies have agreed on an “important and effective package” to dismantle market-distorting aid, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmström says. But the US sees it differently, contending that the agreement reached by the Group of 20’s Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity is superficial and inadequate to address steel …
The last days have been filled with bits and bobs of information on EU trade worth sharing:
Winning a case in the WTO against Chinese restrictions on rare earths back in 2014 was not enough for both the EU and the United States. Early October, Washington launched a new case against continued export restrictions by China on various minerals and metals. This week, the Brussels followed into …
Council members will not only try to reach an agreement to sign CETA at a pencilled in EU Canada summit next week. They will also discuss EU plans to overhaul its antidumping legislation ahead of a planned move to grant China market economy treatment. And the steel industry is watching …
