The annual three-day party convention of the SPD, Chancellor Merkel’s junior coalition partner in government, turned out to be bruising for Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s current Vice Chancellor and economics minister. Part of the left-wing fraction of the party criticised Gabriel for supporting TTIP and CETA, and for toeing the …
North America
USTR Froman is in Brussels to take stock of TTIP negotiations, talk WTO issues
The US top trade diplomat Michael Froman is in Europe and spending time in Brussels to take stock of the difficult transatlantic trade negotiations. His counterpart Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said WTO issues and the coming Nairobi Ministerial next week are also on the agenda of their meeting as both sides …
CETA ratification: The art of staying the course
Cecilia Malmström is in negotiation mode – cultivating ambivalence – on the issue of reopening the CETA with Canada in response to political pressure from centre-left groups and some member states to introduce innovations in the deal’s investment chapter. At a meeting in the EU Parliament on CETA, Malmström …
The battle for CETA begins in the EU as uncertainty hovers over investment chapter
On Thursday and Friday Canada and the EU will discuss the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement inked last year between the two. CETA risks being a victim of the EU’s debate over investment protection and TTIP. Now that the EU is putting forward the idea of an international investment …
Germany’s left-of-centre party SPD coming to terms with investment provisions in CETA, TTIP?
A visit to Germany by Cecilia Malmström – the last one was last Friday – is never meaningless. It looks like the Commission and Berlin have had a hard talk. Germany’s online news site Zeit Online reports that Germany’s economy minister Sigmar Gabriel is planning to pick up a fight …
Vilsack sees mutual recognition of equivalence as possible way out for TTIP agricultural talks on SPS/GIs
During his visit in Brussels on 30 November and 1 December US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack talked TTIP with the Commission, lobby groups, and the European Parliament. During a hearing with Europe’s legislative body, Vilsack said: “We think there are benefits to both the United States and to …
COM TTIP transparency moves becoming tangible as parliaments gain access to consolidated texts
The Commission and the European Parliament sealed a deal allowing all MEPs to access consolidated texts of the ongoing transatlantic trade negotiations. So far only 30 MEPs have been able to see TTIP texts that also reflect US input. “MEPs will be able to read the “consolidated texts” in …
Monthly briefing: EU & public procurement: FTAs, TTIP and EU-Japan
In October 2015, European Union and United States trade negotiators started discussing government procurement in the ongoing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for the first time in two years of talks. Both sides aim to exchange market access offers before February 2016. Public procurement is one of the most contentious …
Reminder: Key take-aways of Council (Trade) on 27 November
The Council’s foreign affairs trade branch met for an intense meeting on trade issues. Key take-aways: TTIP/Transparency: Member state parliamentarians will now receive access to consolidated TTIP texts (i.e. with US views) in EU capitals. This has been a key demand of the German Bundestag. “There will be reading …
German small business group supports new Commission investment proposal, criticises clamp-down on intra EU ISDS
In a newsletter to its members, the German association of Mittelstand companies, the DIHK welcomed the EU Commission’s TTIP proposal for an investment court, hailing in particular its new provisions in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises. “Investment protection serves precisely the protection of small and medium-sized enterprises, which …
