News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
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 …
It’s busy in Geneva these days. An overview of some of the latest developments by Robert Francis and Iana Dreyer.
The European Union wants to be seen as a solutions-provider in the ongoing World Trade Organization’s health-related dealings. This comes after having been caught unawares by a recent decision by the United States to drop its long-held belief in the unassailability of pharmaceutical patents and negotiate a waiver on TRIPS …
Overview of key news items this week in EU trade by Iana Dreyer and Nikos Lavranos.
The global news cycle is dominated today by the decision by the United States to support the idea of a waiver on intellectual property rules enshrined in the World Trade Organization.
This week has been dominated by news and gossip surrounding the nomintion of a successor for the WTO’s outgoing director general. Today, Nigeria announced it was planning to nominate former finance minister and World Bank official Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – a high profile nomination to say the least. The nomination period …
Today the international trade committee met for a somewhat longer session than the one held at the end of April at the height of Europe’s lockdown. Here some highlights of what’s been said. Pharma intellectual property The pharmaceutical intellectual property space is one to watch very closely post COVID-19. It …
This week was mainly about the EU getting back into business mode. The main focus has been on preparing the ground for trade negotiations starting next month with the United Kingdom and managing transatlantic relations. More below. Commissioner Breton toys with idea of a data localisation obligations for business data …
After 20 years of negotiations, the stars really do seem to be aligning for the EU and Mercosur to conclude a free trade agreement in the coming days.
The Council’s negotiating directives to the European Commission aim to ease the way towards negotiations with the United States on elimination of tariffs on goods and on conformity assessment. But will they make life easier for transatlantic negotiators? Not really. Member states mainly made amendments to the mandate on elimination …
