With input from Chris Horseman. The week in EU trade was dominated by preparations for trade agreement negotiations with Britain next month and Phil Hogan’s delicate trip to the United States. Hogan’s tweets mention meetings with members of Congress and the Senate and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The ‘big’ meeting …
Australia & New Zealand
New Zealand and Chile FTA updates
EU, New Zealand set mid-2020 target for FTA conclusion The EU and New Zealand are targeting conclusion of their negotiations for a new free trade agreement by the middle of 2020, following a generally upbeat assessment of the most recent round of talks in Wellington on 10-13 December. Participants in …
Demands for compensation as Brexit TRQ splits starts to affect farm trade
The shadow of Brexit is already hanging heavy over global trade in agricultural products, with WTO members once again this week queueing up to condemn the European Union and the United Kingdom for their proposed approach to splitting tariff rate quotas between the two sides after the United Kingdom leaves …
Week in Brussels: Processing Solomon Islands and Tonga, Australia, Mr Coherence
It’s a short week in most of the EU with many countries on holidays on Allsaints day on 1 November. This explains why our Week in Brussels column is coming out on Thursday instead of Friday. This week we had news on the end of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties and …
MEPs grill visitors over green dimension of EU-Australian FTA talks
The issue of sustainable development may end up having at least as much influence on the success or otherwise of the EU-Australia free trade agreement negotiations as do agricultural market access or GIs. This became apparent in the course of a joint debate in the European Parliament’s international trade committee …
EU FTA talks with Australia and New Zealand starting to get political
The EU is reaching a critical phase in its FTA negotiations with both Australia and New Zealand, as talks start to move from the technical to the political level. Both sets of talks are still moving forward – at a more rapid rate for the EU-NZ talks than for EU-Australia …
Week ahead in EU trade: G20 fallout, parliament leadership race, EU Australia
It hasn’t been much of a weekend for European leaders. Nor for journalists. We’ve had: a handshake deal on the EU Mercosur free trade negotiations on Friday night with few details on its exact content, the signing of the EU Vietnam free trade agreement in Hanoi on Sunday (30 June), …
EU reaches deal to ‘reserve’ shares of hormone-free beef quota for US
The European Commission is trumpeting what it sees as another success of its engage-and-disarm strategy against the administration of US President Trump, with the resolution of a dispute over an EU quota for hormone-free beef.
EU Australia FTA: Labour and environmental issues come into focus
Compared to the ongoing free trade agreement negotiation process with New Zealand, the European Union’s trade talks with Australia are advancing slowly. It’s clear Brussels and Canberra are taking the time they need to bridge wide gaps in the way they conceive some international trade and investment issues. One of …
GIs vs market access: Battle lines drawn as EU-NZ FTA talks progress
The EU and New Zealand are forging ahead with negotiations on a new free trade agreement, with tangible progress being reported in nearly all areas following the latest round of official-level negotiations.
