The European Union and Canada held an overnight summit, which concluded with agreement to cooperate in a wide range of areas including health, climate change, trade and international security.
Energy & Environment
EU, Mercosur eye joint declaration on environment to flank trade pact ahead of ratification
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 …
Blueprint for a green trade agenda
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.
Steel, WTO leader selection, Mercosur at trade minister’s table
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.
Week in Brussels + Geneva: MPIA, cigarettes, carbon border tax, Chile
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 …
Interview: UK academic Dieter Helm makes case for carbon ‘border taxes’
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.
EU and Argentina bury hatchet over biodiesel duties
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 …
Blog: CETA – working round the treaty on climate, gender, labour
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 …
A Week in Brussels: Polish schadenfreude, rapeseed vs palm oil, trumping ivory trade
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 …
Investment screening regulation: EP trade committee expands sector coverage
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 …
