News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Council members met on Wednesday (31 May 2017) to discuss various trade files. Among the files was the long-awaited mandate to the Commission to launch negotiations to modernise the EU’s more than twenty year old customs union with Turkey. Though there is a general interest in pursuing the modernisation process, the file is …
“Long nurtured relationships as between the United States and Germany never only rely on individual persons or sharp statements”, warned Mark Wansleben, head of the German business organization DIHK after the G7 meeting in Taormina, Italy on 26 & 27 May 2017. The statements made to Handelsblatt, the leading German …
The Dutch Senate put its final seal of approval on the EU Ukraine Association Agreement on Tuesday (30 May 2017). The path is now clear for the political parts of the agreement, which encompasses a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, to come into force in the summer 2017. The …
G7 nations are meeting in Taormina, Sicily, amidst high political tensions between the US and European countries, in particular Germany. Common ground on trade will be difficult to find. The EU and Japan are trying to advance their own free trade agenda in parallel. The trade tensions with the US are likely to …
US president Donald Trump met various EU leaders on Thursday (25 May 2017). A few brief take-aways from the meetings, with a focus on trade: The first aim was primarily for leaders of EU institutions and Donald Trump to meet and know each other and establish a working …
The British wine industry is not happy about the effects of Brexit on their trade. But longer term, prospects for British consumers could improve. “It’s a bit gloomy”, said Jancis Robinson, a leading British wine writer and Financial Times columnist. The British public will have to “drink less, and less …
A group of 15 EU member states has called on the EU Commission to step up efforts to draw up a common position that secures free cross border data flows in free trade agreements. The move comes at a time when the EU is finalising its four year old …
Sri Lanka regained its lost ‘GSP Plus’ status on Friday (19 May 2017). The country lost the preferential market access status in 2010 following government human right abuses in the context of its crackdown on the Tamil Tiger rebellion. Since 2015, the new government under Ranil Wickremesinghe has fought hard …
Newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron has named the team he wants to work with: 22 ministers and secretaries of state under the supervision of prime minister Edouard Philippe. It’s early to say anything on French government attitudes to trade going forward, but as it stands let’s expect continuity. …
The long-awaited ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU on the division of competences between Brussels and the member states on the content of the 2013/2014 free trade agreement with Singapore settles many perpetual power tussles between Brussels and the capitals on a variety of trade-related topics. The …
