News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, May 5, 2025
That was a pretty lonely affair for France. The European Parliament’s very last plenary last session in Strasbourg this week was dedicated to one of the most difficult and high-profile trade topics at the moment: transatlantic trade relations. More precisely the topic was the threat of new tariffs from Washington …
On Wednesday the European Parliament held a snap debate on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement and whether it was compatible with the Green Deal announced by Commission von der Leyen. The Mercosur text’s examination and ratification process have not yet started. Said text is not yet even entirely consolidated. Yet the …
It took Indonesia a long time to move from threat to action: but now we have the complaint filed by Jakarta against the European Union’s REDII directive in its relation to imported biofuels. The Indonesian complaint also targets France’s tax exemptions for biofuels – which do not cover biodiesel based …
This article was prepared with input from Chris Horseman. It is haping up to be a good Christmas for USTR Robert Lighthizer. But this means it won’t be a good Christmas for the European Union. United States relations in focus Over the last few days, the United States and China …
It’s been en eventful week, with the Appellate Body disappearing and the English (and Welsh) voting to “get Brexit done”. Here are other bits of news of potential interest for EU trade. Council Conclusions: green trade ok but at low cost and with level playing field Heads of government are …
The measure has already been announced this summer. Now it is clearly on its way. One day after the demise of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, Brussels is pulling out its legislative claws in a move aimed at defending its commercial interests if judicial disputes end ‘in …
Safeguards, anti-subsidy investigations, case re-openings, China, Egyptian glass fibre. What has really driven European Union trade defence policy in 2019?
Brussels has eagerly been waiting for the new European Commission’s ‘Green Deal, a flagship initiative announced by its new president Ursula von der Leyen. Coordinated by Vice President Frans Timmermans, the new compact of measures aims to bring together various strands of EU policy to fulfil the EU’s goal to …
It’s been an eventful week on trade – with a deepening WTO crisis, some movement on agriculture, continued uncertainty over the EU Vietnam FTA ratification…. New low in WTO and transatlantic trade relations This week has provided fodder for around-the-clock quotation-chasing media as developments shifted by the day, if not …
World Trade Organization member countries have pledged to at least make an effort to agree new disciplines on domestic agricultural subsidies at the Organization’s ministerial meeting in Kazakhstan next June. Negotiators will begin work in January 2020 on a possible new text for agreement at the Nur-Sultan ministerial, bolstered by …
