A budding process aimed at moving the EU-Turkey economic partnership forward and modernise their 20-year-old customs union – a need highlighted by the launch of TTIP – is off to a difficult start. The EU faces domestic obstacles on moving ahead with the Turkey file, and Ankara is spending more political capital …
EU trade policies
Pakistan requests WTO panel in dispute on EU plastics trade defence measures
Pakistan has asked the World Trade Organization to establish a dispute settlement panel against the European Union which allegedly violated global trade rules by imposing “provisional and definitive countervailing duties” on imports of certain plastics from Pakistan. Ravi Kanth reports from Geneva.
Revived aircraft subsidy feud taken to new level
The dormant decade-old dispute between Brussels and Washington over subsidies to their respective aircraft giants Airbus and Boeing is being revived. Brussels has requested a dispute settlement panel to be established at the WTO over new subsidies decided by Washington state late last year. Ravi Kanth reports from Geneva. //
In brief: As EU Japan trade talks go: European cheese and meat exports already made easier
The EU Commission announced today that Japan changed a sanitary standard for bacteria called Listeria Monocytogenes.
In brief: Minsk deal offers prospect of trade talks as new EU sanctions enacted
Updated on 13 Feb. The declaration issued by the German and French governments following the East Ukraine ceasefire deal sealed last night between the heads of state or government of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France contains a call to continue negotiations on gas trade between Russia and Ukraine, as well as language encouraging …
Blog: EU’s preferential services offer to least developed economies – devil in details
Last week’s EU initiative to offer preferential access to its services market to the least-developed-economies (LDCs) , mostly sub-Saharan African, which are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has created a buzz, and clearly is a positive move. Yet whether this is really a good offer for LDCs remains unclear: the sectors up for opening cited so far by …
New TiSA round in Geneva this week
The 11th round of negotiations towards the trade in services (TiSA) agreement among a subset of World Trade Organization (WTO) members has begun on Saturday. Our Geneva correspondent Ravi Kanth explains where the negotiations stand and what will be at stake this week. A clear asymmetry of demands between members is appearing, …
EU trade policy: Pascal Lamy hopes for Commission firmness
In an exclusive interview with Borderlex, the former WTO director general, who has also served as European Union trade commissioner and as chef de cabinet of Jacques Delors, architect of the EU’s single market, shared some of his views on the current politics of trade in Brussels. One of his …
Blog: Power games – Commission wants member states to apply transparency to ISDS in their BITs
Comment: EU-China trade and investment files – another five years of impasse?
In a speech to the Brussels business community, Cecilia Malmström set out the European Commission’s approach to China. The trade commissioner’s talk indicates there will likely not be much change in the way Brussels deals with the giant Asian country. European businesses wanting the EU to open more markets in China for them might …
