France’s constitutional council has decided to postpone its decision on the compatibility of the EU Canadian trade pact CETA with the French constitution. France’s court was seized one month ago by more than 100 French MPs, with the legal support of three NGOs: Foodwatch Europe, the Institut Veblen and the …
EU trade policies
EPP weighs into EU debate on FDI screening
MEPs from the main centre-right group EPP are preparing a motion that would call on the EU Commission to introduce screening of foreign direct controls. The proposal is being circulated by MEP heavyweights Manfred Weber, Daniel Caspary, Tokia Saifi, Iuliu Winkler, Slavatore Cicu, Frank Proust, Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl, Viviane Reding, Andreas …
EU and Japan pledge to finalise trade deal – step up data cooperation
The EU and Japan are trying to finalise their almost four year old free trade agreement negotiations. Both sides had hoped to do so in late 2016 but have found it difficult to bridge final gaps. A visit by Japan’s Prime Minister in Brussels is expected to give a final …
Opinion: The pitfalls of pushing for TTIP in 2017
Iana Dreyer on why pursuing TTIP this year is not in the EU’s best interest.
EU Commission mulls options to bloc politically motivated investments
Details of Commission plans to potentially screen and bloc foreign direct investments that are “politically motivated” have started leaking. The plans were initiated shortly after Germany blocked the acquisition of a German firm Aixtron by a Chinese state-owned company in late 2016, following a request by Berlin, Paris and Rome. The plans consider the …
Japan rules out early 2017 conclusion of EU FTA
Japan is not yet ready to open duty-free quotas on imports of dairy to the EU, nor is it happy with what it has gathered of the EU’s e-commerce chapter plans related to digital data flows. One week ahead of a bilateral meeting between the leadership in Brussels and …
EU and ASEAN in attempt to relaunch region to region trade deal
The EU and the South East Asian bloc ASEAN have agreed in principle to try to re-launch talks towards a region-to-region trade agreement at a trade ministers’ meeting in Manila on Friday (10 March 2017). “The participants of today’s ministerial meeting will now task their senior officials to work out the …
Member states call for EU trade push
The Council conclusions adopted by 27 member states in the middle of the night of Thursday to Friday (9/10 March 2017) indicate the direction of travel the member states want the EU to take on trade policy in the coming months: forward. The member states say that the recent …
Business hits back at Commission data flow plans for FTAs
An EU Commission draft template text on the cross-border movement of data currently under circulation is an embattled minefield, with the bulk of the digital community ready to hit back at it. The draft language is currently being prepared by DG trade with the intention to include it in …
Blog: France, Ireland and Italy feature alongside Germany in Navarro trade deficit discourse
The mainstream media have mostly picked upon Peter Navarro’s comments on Germany’s trade surplus with the United States during his speech at the National Association of Business Economics on Monday (6 March 2017). But other European countries should pay closer attention to what he says too. The White House …
