News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Friday, June 2, 2023
The EU and India agreed on a number of trade and investment policy cooperation topics for the next twelve months during their inaugural Trade and Technology Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. They are also aiming to conclude a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the semiconductors sector by September …
Emergency Europe, a term forged during the eurozone crisis reached the EU’s trade policy during the pandemic. There are now-established patterns for many areas of trade policy affected by global and regional turmoil. Let’s brace for a more unpredictable EU.
The UK has announced the launch of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement with Switzerland. The new FTA is intended to update and replace the current bilateral trade arrangements. These involve an incomplete rollover of the EU’s matrix of trade deal with the Alpine state. To a greater extent …
A week of big manoeuvring lies ahead. By Rob Francis, Chris Horseman and Iana Dreyer.
Europe is becoming a new geopolitical battleground in the US China rivalry. Is it mere coincidence that China’s foreign minister Qin Gang was touring the European Union as the EU celebrated ‘Europe Day’ on Tuesday?
The history of the UK’s exit from the EU has been littered with ‘cliff-edge’ deadlines of various types. Some of these have just about been met, while others have been dramatically pushed back at the last minute.
There is talk of a new ‘Washington consensus’ on trade as spelled out in a recent speech by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. This Washington view partly overlaps with the EU’s new approach to trade policy. But their new position of domestic industry above anything else will not deliver …
After a few weeks of being fairly quiet, think tanks doing things on trade policy have been churning out reports again – long or short – on some big-ticket items: WTO reform, EU data flows and EU Turkey relations.
The WTO would function better if it could become more flexible in drawing on cross-cutting expertise both from within the organisation and from external stakeholders. This was one of a range of messages floated at this week’s meeting of the WTO’s general council, as discussions picked up speed on how …
This week’s trade highlight in Brussels was a decision to introduce a temporary import safeguard on certain agricultural goods from Ukraine in five countries and until June – and a further decision to liberalise fruit and vegetables trade for Moldova. All this was capped by European Commission executive vice president …
