France will table a position paper to feed-in to an upcoming European Commission report on applying EU health and environmental production standards to imported products.
Agriculture
Brazil sues EU over salmonella regulations at the WTO
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.
Delors Institute report calls on trade policy to buttress greener EU food system
The European Union needs an “adequate trade strategy to respond to concerns of ‘unfair competition’ from imports as regards environmental standards”, according to a new policy paper from the Paris-based Jacques Delors think tank. The report comes as the European Commission is expected to publish on 17 November a proposal …
Mercosur: EU sets precedent with tariff preferences conditional on animal welfare standards
The EU and the parties to the EU Mercosur Association Agreement are making progress on the ‘legal scrubbing’ of the trade pillar of their prospective agreement. Whereas most parts of the agreement have been public since 2019, critical pieces of market access offers were not made public as their fine …
EU expected to launch WTO case against Russian Champagne labelling decision
It’s taken the European Commission a few days to gather its thoughts and feedback from the wine industry following Russia’s recent decision to authorise the label ‘Champagne’ only for Russian-produced sparkling wines. But a response will soon be in the offing – and a dispute invoking EU rights under TRIPS …
EU FTAs: Commission unveils new chapter on sustainable food systems
The European Commission late last week published a proposed chapter on sustainable food systems that it wants to include in its EU-Chile trade agreement. Negotiations towards its modernisation are ongoing. The chapter is also expected to be introduced into future and ongoing trade negotiations, including those with Australia and New …
Week in London: Australia beef, Canada, Mexico, duty suspensions
It’s busy on the trade beat in Brussels this week. It’s also busy in London.
London upbeat over progress of New Zealand trade talks
The United Kingdom is confident that it will conclude a free trade agreement with New Zealand ‘in the coming months’, despite continuing friction between the two sides over agricultural market access.
EU risks fresh trade rows over GI status for ‘halloumi’ cheese
The European Commission has risked complicating its ongoing free trade agreement negotiations with Australia and New Zealand by authorising a Cypriot cheese speciality as a new geographical indication. This move also opens up a new potential area of conflict in its relationship with the United Kingdom.
Progress over post Brexit agriculture quota splits as Brussels wraps up talks with Washington
One of the most challenging trade issues arising from the UK’s departure from the EU – the question of what to do about existing EU28 tariff rate quotas for mostly agricultural goods – appears to be on the way towards being resolved. The European Commission announced on Monday (8 March) …
