Sign left by the roadside by anti trade agreement demonstrators in Brussels on 20 September 2016. Photo taken on Avenue de la Loi, Brussels (21/09/2016).
EU trade policies
CETA: Business accuses Commission of not protecting treaties ahead of rocky member state endorsement process
On Thursday and Friday (22 & 23 September), EU trade ministers are set to decide whether to endorse CETA, and on the next steps for its ratification. Business is highly nervous about the prospects the Canadian trade deal awaiting signature and ratification. It is also highly dissatisfied about the Commission’s decision to declare it …
Business group anticipates TTIP negotiation halt in 2017
EU leaders are getting prepared for a halt to TTIP negotiations in 2017.
EU Japan FTA: business groups criticise slow pace of talks, textiles make proposals
Business groups are mobilising for the EU Japan agreement under negotiation since 2013 (updated on 21.09 16:18). The EU and Japan are preparing for a seventeenth round of trade negotiations late September. Though political leaders on both sides have called on the negotiators to conclude an agreement by the end of …
Vietnam and business asked to wait until 2018 for FTA ratification
Vietnam concluded an FTA with the EU in late 2015 and is keen on seeing it coming into force as soon as possible. Whereas the Commission is trying to ensure another agreement concluded almost at the same time as the Vietnam deal – CETA with Canada – gets ratified and can come …
German Social Democrats greenlight CETA – ask for future revisions
Germany’s social-democratic party has endorsed the EU Canadian trade agreement CETA at a party convention on Monday (19 September). This move increases the chances that the treaty will be ratified by Germany, but does not give Brussels and Ottawa a blank cheque. The approval came after SPD …
ECJ annuls Indonesia and Argentina biodiesel antidumping duties
The Court of Justice of the European Union has asked the European Commission to annul current antidumping duties applied to biodiesel from Indonesia and from Argentina.
Head of German Catholic Church says TTIP can contribute to fairer world economic order
He is Catholic, he is German, and his family name is Marx. You’d think he is against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently under negotiation between the EU and the United States. But in fact he approves of TTIP. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German Bishop’s Conference, and also …
Malmström and Freeland ready to offer further clarifications on CETA
Canada and the Commission are to offer further clarifications on CETA ahead of a meeting of member states on the EU-Canadian trade deal. The German social democrats – the SPD – received only part of what they asked for. After Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel, the country’s vice chancellor went to Canada on Thursday …
New TiSA leaks reveal trade treaty innovations, deep divisions
Wikileaks has leaked five negotiation texts pertaining to the Trade in Services Agreement process. The texts bear June and July 2016 dates and were presumably discussed during last round of negotiations in July in Geneva. The revealed texts are: the consolidated version of the core text of TiSA; an EU 30-page …
