It’s been a dense and intense week in EU trade. Here a few snippets. By Rob Francis and Iana Dreyer. Sweden wants those FTAs – but there’s trouble ahead on the Latin American front Sweden’s trade minister Johan Forssell confirmed on Tuesday (24 January) that the Swedish presidency of the …
Mexico
Blog: What to expect from tomorrow’s EU trade minister meeting
The trade ministers of the European Union are converging on Brussels on Friday (25 November) for their bi-annual formal meeting. Tomorrow’s gathering will deliver very little in terms of formal decisions, but it might help bring a few ongoing trade files forward.
Interview: EU-Mexico Global Agreement will soon need extra upgrade
The upgraded EU-Mexico Global Agreement, concluded in 2020, will soon be approved by both sides. Rob Francis talked to César Guerra about the deal, why it matters, the process for ratification, improving it further – and the CPTPP in all this.
Week in Brussels: Oysters, tequila, TTC, Indonesia FTA
It’s been an intense week….with the meltdown in Northern Ireland over the EU UK Protocol, the WTO’s Okonjo-Iweala shaking up things in Geneva, the serious work now in full swing in the European Parliament on carbon border adjustment, the EU rolling out its ‘strategic autonomy’ agenda in a wide areas …
Week in Brussels: Potential EU-US supply chain collaboration, Korea ILO, Mexico Global Agreement
Dombrovskis sees potential in EU-US supply chain resilience collaboration President Biden this week made headlines by announcing a review of the United States’ supply chains. Strategic dependencies on – namely but not only – China and other supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic have had the US government focus …
The EU’s 2021 trade plans – beyond the EU-UK and EU-US horror picture show
Africa, Latin America, India, procurement: what the EU is planning to do in its international trade diplomacy in this area.
Comment: the EU Mexico deal on public procurement
And the winner is…. the EU’s measurement instrument industry, perhaps. The European Commission recently published the final outcome of negotiations in the public procurement area agreed with Mexico as part of an upgrade of the EU Mexico Global Agreement. It took the two parties less than two years to upgrade …
EU and Mexico finalise procurement talks, pave way for revamped trade agreement
It took almost two years. In the summer 2018, the EU and Mexico announced they had concluded a wide-ranging renegotiation of a now twenty-year-old trade pact, pending a risky major negotiation ahead: market access in the area of public procurement. So much happened in the meantime, including an election in …
Week in Brussels: Movement on Mexico, Korea labour dispute, Uzbekistan
It’s been a pretty packed week. Here other low-key but important developments in EU trade policy. EU Mexico FTA stirrings The EU and Mexico had concluded negotiations towards the modernisation of a twenty year old free trade agreement in April 2018. But that agreement ‘in principle’ left the parties with …
USMCA challenges EU’s advance on GI protection – but too late for Mexico?
The recently concluded US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement includes a clear challenge to the EU’s strategy of ‘globalising’ its protection of Geographical Indications by including their provisions within international free trade agreements. The new clauses, contained within the USMCA’s Section 20 on Intellectual Property, set out rigorous procedures to permit any new …