News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Faced with the prospect of a trade agreement with four South American countries that has taken more than twenty years to negotiate being voted down amidst wide-spread public opinion fear it might set ablaze the Amazon forest, the European Commission has taken the initiative. And it wants to move fast …
A series of papers published by the think tank Europe Jacques Delors puts forward proposals that aim to strengthen environmental protection within an open international trading system. Borderlex’s Iana Dreyer exchanged views with one of the papers’ co-authors Geneviève Pons.
Protecting the steel industry, what to do with the EU Mercosur trade pact and finding common ground in the WTO director-general selection process were among the main topics discussed by trade ministers in Berlin today at an informal meeting hosted by the German presidency of the Council.
Australia’s plain packaging rules okayed by Appellate Body A brief note on the fact that the Appellate Body, as expected, upheld a panel ruling that confirmed Australia’s right to impose plain packaging – i.e. remove branding – on cigarette packs. This week’s ruling will have systemic implications also for food …
Environmental impacts such as carbon emissions should be captured at the border, in the form of tariffs which level the playing field between competitor producer countries, a prominent UK economist and government adviser has argued.
The EU and Argentina ended six years of disagreements over the South American country’s exports of biodiesel to the bloc with a compromise that averts years of litigation in courts. In 2013, the EU introduced dumping duties on imports of the soybean-oil-based biodiesel, which was seen as harming EU producers …
Canada and the EU hosted their first CETA Joint Committee meeting. The committee’s role is to oversee the implementation of the trade agreement. In fact, the meeting mainly dealt with demands made on it which are not in the treaty. CETA has been in force ‘provisionally’ for one year. But …
The main obsession in Brussels this week has been the EU-US trade spat. All eyes will be on the Group of Seven meeting in Canada. Mercosur and EU negotiators have been working until the time of writing on narrowing gaps on ‘geographical indications’ protection and Mercosur’s offer on autos (rules of origin …
The European Parliament wants to enact legislation on the screening of foreign takeovers swiftly, before EU institutions shut down in the early months of next year ahead of European elections. This is why the committee on international trade voted for anticipated inter-institutional – or ‘trilogue’ – negotiations with the Council …
It hasn’t been an easy week for the EU. Just as member state leaders felt they might be nearing a deal with US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross that could spare the EU tariffs on steel and aluminium before a temporary exemption expires next week, the Trump administration initiated an …
