The European Parliament is ready to enter inter-institutional trilogue negotiations with the Council on the EU’s planned anti-coercion legislation after a vote in committee and a decision in plenary this week. Member states are not quite there yet. But they hope to seal a deal among themselves in November and …
EU trade policies
Anti-coercion instrument: MEPs dig in on European Commission powers
The international trade committee of the European Parliament adopted its position on the coming anti-coercion instrument in preparation for future negotiations with member states as it prepares for a likely showdown with EU capitals over the European Commission’s powers in this file.
EU and Japan to start data flow negotiations
The EU and Japan announced they will start negotiations towards data flow provisions in a revamped digital chapter in their bilateral free trade agreement.
Commission prepares ground for ECT reform deal with intra-EU termination deal
The European Commission is preparing the paperwork to allow the EU to sign off on an agreement in principle on a renegotiated Energy Charter Treaty next month. Among these documents is an internal understanding among member states that investor-state arbitration based on the ECT among EU countries is no longer …
Interview: EU and Singapore need to upgrade their trade agreement
The European Services Forum’s managing director Pascal Kerneis discussed EU-Singapore trade relations with Iana Dreyer’s Borderlex. So what is at stake with the coming revision of their 2019 free trade agreement and with the planned Digital Partnership Agreement?
Week in Brussels: Deforestation regulation outcry, steel safeguard revision, Petriccione loss
It’s still very quiet in Brussels but trade policy has started stirring ahead of a packed rentrée next week.
South Africa poultry trade dispute: panel rebuffs EU financial, customs union claims
August is traditionally quiet in European Union trade policy making. Here’s this month’s main Brussels trade story so far. A panel of arbitrators appointed under the 2016 Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community ruled on 3 August that an import safeguard on frozen chicken …
South Africa files case against EU citrus import measures at WTO
A last little present for the August holidays brought to us from the southern hemisphere. South Africa requested consultations today with the EU in Geneva regarding measures applied mid July which add extra precautionary measures on its citrus fruit shipments from overseas. The measures are taken prima facie to avert …
Week in Brussels: Singapore digital agreement wish list, anti-dumping circumvention
AUGUST RECESS AT BORDERLEX: As of Monday 1 August, the small team at Borderlex will be on a break from trade news reporting as the policy machineries in Brussels, London and Geneva themselves grind to a halt for the summer. We will be back during the week of 22 August. …
Arbitrators issue first post-Appellate Body report in Geneva
Appeal arbitrators issued the first ruling that follows the demise of the Appellate Body in late 2019 at the World Trade Organization. The format and content of the award give an initial indication of what the future of WTO dispute settlement might be.