After a week dominated by EU-US trade news, here some other developments in trade policy in Brussels. By Sarah Anne Aarup and Iana Dreyer.
Agriculture
Week in Brussels: EU-UK roundup, Angola, pigmeat and wheat
After an extended summer break, our Week in Brussels column is back in action to wrap up busy weeks in European Union trade. This week : EU-UK, Angola joining the EU SADC EPA and the good COVID-19 crisis for some EU agrifood exports.
EU reintroduces maize tariffs, spares soya as low prices trigger automatic adjustments
The European Commission acted on Monday to re-impose tariffs on a key United States import product – but don’t worry, it’s not a new front opening up on the transatlantic trade war, it’s just the Common Agricultural Policy. Imports tariffs have been re-imposed with effect from 27 April on maize, …
EU, UK join WTO group pledging fight against food export curbs
The European Union has joined with 23 other World Trade Organization members in pledging not to impose food export bans in response to the crisis in food distribution which the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed in some sectors. The commitment was issued in the form of a WTO joint statement, coordinated …
EU exports of GI food products booming – but is its trade policy helping?
The European Union has boosted its exports of food and drink products with protected geographical indications by 62% over the last seven years, according to a new European Commission report. The study sheds some interesting light on the political and commercial drivers behind the EU’s controversial policies on GIs and …
EU Trade Policy Review: Heavy criticism of agri-food ‘protectionism’
Is the European Union a progressively-minded bulwark of the rules-based trading system, or a trade leviathan which reverts to unscientific ruses to keep competitors out of its most sensitive markets? The answer appears to be that it is both of these things simultaneously – at least if the latest World …
Week in Brussels: EU US, Vietnam, Cariforum, 1 year EU Japan
It’s been a week full of hoo haa around EU US agriculture trade. The EU put a bit of antidumping into its digital strategy. The European Parliament ratified the EU-UK withdrawal agreement on Wednesday and offered a moving good-bye ceremony to Britons. In London, Union Jack flags are being waved …
WTO negotiations resume on agricultural domestic support
World Trade Organization member countries have pledged to at least make an effort to agree new disciplines on domestic agricultural subsidies at the Organization’s ministerial meeting in Kazakhstan next June. Negotiators will begin work in January 2020 on a possible new text for agreement at the Nur-Sultan ministerial, bolstered by …
WTO tariff rate quota system review: what they have been trying to do
WTO member countries are set to defer a decision to how best to overhaul the tariff rate quota system for agricultural imports until the end of 2021, after a series of meetings in Geneva over the past two years have ended in deadlock. A review mechanism which was launched in …
MEPs step up preparations to approve US beef hormone quota
Members of the European Parliament are signalling they are ready to rubber-stamp the European Commission’s proposal to reallocate the EU’s duty-free tariff rate quota for high-quality beef in favour of the United States, in the interests of de-escalating the bloc’s current trade conflict with Washington. Following repeated assurances by the …
