News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Monday, May 5, 2025
The European Union is still waiting for some form of official announcement on whether the White House will order import duties to be applied to autos and auto parts – or whether it will, as anticipated by most observers on both sides of the Pond – postpone the decision and …
This will be less a week of action on trade in the EU than a week of deadlines. Watch out for a possible first ever decision in the EU to recommend suspending Everything-But-Arms trade preferences following months of wrangling with Cambodia’s ruler Hun Sen. US auto tariff deadline The main …
The Pacific Islands Economic Partnership Agreement is now in the hands of French MEP André Rougé, a member of France’s far right Rassemblement National and the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy group that includes far right parties from eight other European countries. A file that would have sailed quietly through …
This week China hosted a small ministerial conference with around thirty members of the World Trade Organization in Shanghai. Little has been reported about this low-key meeting. But it appears to have brought some movement in specific WTO files. The gathering in Shanghai offered the opportunity for the EU to …
It’s a short week in most of the EU with many countries on holidays on Allsaints day on 1 November. This explains why our Week in Brussels column is coming out on Thursday instead of Friday. This week we had news on the end of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties and …
The European Commission has published a lot of material about the free trade agreement concluded with Mercosur last summer. But the most interesting parts of the agreement – the market access offers in goods and services – were still missing. Whether it’s the effect of last Sunday’s elections in Argentina …
The process of ending intra-European Union bilateral investment treaties has created much bitterness and resentment between the European Commission and member states as well as among EU capitals. It is now coming to an end although a big battle still lies in an Energy Charter Treaty context. The long-standing internal …
The stink the United States and other advanced countries have been putting up in recent months at the World Trade Organization appears to be achieving some results. China and other countries have started listening. The behaviour and status of developing countries in the global trading system, industrial subsidies and state …
It’s been a horrible week for trade aficionados. The US said no to proposed WTO Appellate Body reforms, US tariffs on EU exports are kicking in, and one had to follow the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement negotiations. The final Brexit deal implies customs contortions in Northern Ireland which many policy wonks …
Foreign ministers of the European Union agreed to upgrade relationships with the South East Asian country Thailand at a meeting in Luxembourg today. Among others, the upgrage involves resuming trade agreement negotiations. These had begun in 2010 but were halted after the Council asked the European Commission to suspend negotiations …
