News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Revived in 2016, he decades-old EU-Mercosur free trade talks were not concluded last year as hoped by proponents. The new Bolsonaro government in Brazil, Mercosur’s biggest player, has cast a shadow over the future of the negotiations. “Meetings will resume under the Argentinian pro-tempore presidency of Mercosur in the first quarter …
The United States Trade Representative’ s trade negotiating objectives with the European Union indicate bilateral talks ahead between Washington and Brussels will be difficult, if not outright impossible, to conclude.
Venezuela struck back this week against US sanctions targeting the government of President Nicolás Maduro, filing a World Trade Organization complaint that accuses Washington of imposing “coercive trade-restrictive measures on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the context of attempts to isolate Venezuela economically”. The dispute is the latest touching …
This week has mainly been about everyone getting back to work. The EU’s top priority is the transatlantic relationship. Trade chief Cecilia Malmström, visiting Washington in the early days of January, signals just that. But were there actually any new developments this week on the planned trade deals? Not really, as …
Despite their prime importance for Europe, Britain and the United States, there’s been little deep thinking about the future of transatlantic relations post-Brexit, both at the geostrategic level and at the more mundane economic level. But that is bound to change. In Britain, the focus after the 2016 referendum has mainly …
The European Commission is expected to table two negotiation mandate proposals for EU member states to greenlight in the coming weeks following a bilateral meeting between trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström and her counterpart Robert Lighthizer in Washington. The bilateral gathering was a follow-up to a summit between US President Donald …
The overarching question shaping European trade policy outcomes this year will be: what role for international trade and investment law for global business and the work of trade diplomats? This issue will be central in the four major files with which European trade policy will grapple: the future of the …
It’s mainly been a WTO-intensive week for the EU with a revised intellectual property dispute filed against China, and the US having yet another gripe about the Appellate Body. London clinched a short bye-bye deal with Norway, Iceland and Liecthenstein, while the country is realising little is actually in place in …
The US and a dozen other World Trade Organization members have finally agreed about something concerning the Appellate Body: the WTO’s highest court has no authority to issue rulings that set a binding precedent. This issue is a non-issue in the eyes of WTO members including the EU, Canada, Japan …
The strong effects of regional trade agreements on commerce between members show that economic integration works, writes Per Altenberg. Negotiating RTAs that liberalise trade is an effective strategy for countries that seek economic improvement through trade, he argues.
