The next two weeks are notable for all the rounds of trade negotiations: the EU will hold talks with China and Indonesia this week and then with Mercosur and New Zealand next week. In between, EU and Japanese officials will sign their economic partnership and strategic partnership agreements. But perhaps …
Indonesia
Comment: Palm and soybean oil phaseout will test EU environmental objectivity
If the EU wants to avoid losing a potential World Trade Organization dispute following its decision to phase out palm and soybean oil-based biofuels, it will need to prove its environmenal criteria are objective. For political reasons, that will be difficult, as this might involve displeasing EU rapeseed and sunflower …
EU palm oil plans crop up in WTO
On Monday, seven World Trade Organization members raised concerns about the EU’s new Renewable Energy Directive during a goods committee meeting. In January, the European Parliament voted to ban palm oil from the bloc’s targets for consumption of renewable energy for transport by 2021, in a shift away from earlier …
EU FTA roundup – Negotiations, ratifications, mandates
EU free trade negotiations, ratifications and mandate releases have been on the slow lane recently compared to other trade policy files, as President Donald Trump and Brexit grab headlines and policymakers’ attention. Here’s an overview of where we are on the various files. Mercosur EU-Mercosur FTA negotiations are …
ASEAN: An afterthought in EU trade policy?
There’s about one year to go before its top leadership gets renewed. Yet the European Commission risks missing out on the early harvest it reaped in its free trade agreement negotiations with ASEAN members in the first years of this legislature, writes Iana Dreyer. The EU’s executive is trying …
Mercosur in German NGO limelight
The EU is in the final stages of free trade negotiations with the South American bloc Mercosur. It is readying for the adoption of a new trade agreement with Japan and Vietnam. Anti trade agreement campaign groups have recently stepped up their activities to fight these agreements. A joint …
EU duties on Indonesian biodiesel break rules, WTO says
European tariffs on Indonesian biodiesel are illegal, the World Trade Organization said today in a ruling that contains the same basic findings as in a similar WTO complaint lodged by Argentina. But the panel went even further, faulting the EU’s profit calculations and finding serious defects with the bloc’s export-price …
The week ahead in EU trade: State of Union, MTDI, Indonesia
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will deliver his annual ‘State of the Union’ speech before the European Parliament on Wednesday (13 September). Juncker has hinted that the EU’s trade policy would feature prominently in his speech. Items expected in his remarks include the Commission’s position on the future architecture of trade …
Indonesia revives EU biodiesel antidumping disputes with new WTO complaint
If you believed the fate of the EU’s biodiesel antidumping duties was sealed after the WTO appellate body’s ruling on a case brought by Argentina and a European Court of Justice ruling annulling these measures in the autumn 2016, stand corrected. The saga goes on. This week, Indonesia filed a complaint in …
EU ASEAN trade deals: state of play
The European Union wants to seize the opportunity that international circumstances are giving it to move up ASEAN’s priority list in international trade. But the EU could be held back by its own foreign policy goals, and the European Parliament, which both insist on democracy promotion and human rights. …