News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Saturday, November 27, 2021
The European Union, the United States and Japan have agreed to resume dormant talks aimed at agreeing on joint principles related to industrial subsidisation, which they would like the World Trade Organization to endorse in a potential future reform process.
The EU and Switzerland today decided to work on a roadmap to mend their faltering relationship, with Brussels emphasising that it needs an unambiguous signal from Bern that it is ready to engage.
This week’s trade minister meeting in Brussels was a rather grumpy family gathering ahead of ‘decision time’ for small but strategic trade agreements with Chile (lithium anyone?), New Zealand and Australia. Here are some other interesting developments. EU and Vietnam hold their first FTA civil society group meetings The first …
EU trade ministers today exposed their divisions as to whether and when to formally announce the political conclusion of a renegotiation of an existing trade agreement with Chile. The meeting allowed a discussion and stock take of other ongoing EU trade files.
Almost ten years after rules on salmonella in poultry meat were amended in the European Union, Brazil is filing for consultations at the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva over what it sees as discriminatory treatment of its processed poultry meat.
The recent EU-US agreement on steel and aluminium tariffs appears to reinforce EU Green Deal and US domestic economic priorities combined with the wish of weakening China. This comes at the cost of undermining fundamentals of the World Trade Organization. This carries some risk, particularly for the EU.
This week has been quiet in Brussels – so quiet in fact, that some of the coffee shops around the EU area took advantage of the holiday week and closed their doors for the duration. But the transatlantic policy churn continued unabated.
The agreement reached last weekend to partially replace the US’ section 232 tariffs on EU imports of steel and aluminium and replace them with tariff rate quotas has elicited mixed responses, and a divergent reaction from the two sectors involved.
The United States agreed to partially replace its Trump-era Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminium originating in the European Union and replace them with tariff rate quotas for the next two years. In response, the EU has announced will suspend plans to double its rebalancing tariff measures on a …
Under-the-radar but important trade policy news for you in this Week in Brussels column. By Rob Francis and a little bit of extra input from Iana Dreyer. Section 232 talks with US continue as Commission eyes temporary solution Only two days before the Commission’s self-set deadline to finalise negotiations with …
