100 posts
Lisbon wars - The Council fights back
On Wednesday, your humble blogger reported about the letter from the European Parliament's international trade committee to the Council demanding more involvement in international trade matters. In the draft reply from the Council you can see that th...
EC consults stakeholders over trade policy towards developing countries
European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht opened a conference focused on the European Union's trade policy towards developing countries. The objective of this conference is to discuss publicly how to maintain the effectiveness of the EU's General Sy...
The involvement of the European Parliament: Common Commercial policy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtppt/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Vital Moreira (photo), the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA), has addressed a letter to Miguel Sebastián Cascón, the Spanish Minister for Trade, Industry,...
Five reasons to suspend EPA negotiations
By Ablassé Ouédraogo, former Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former special advisor to the President of ECOWAS for trade negotiations. In September 2002, the EU began trade negotiations with 76 African, Caribbean a...
Thailand, Brazil, Australia may take EU sugar case to WTO
The world’s three major sugar-exporting nations – Thailand, Brazil and Australia – recently expressed their opposition to the European Union’s (EU’s) export subsidy on sugar, on the grounds that it affects prices and lowers other countries
EU fury over bilateral trade pact delay
The delay in the signing of economic partnership agreements by East African Community member states has aroused the ire of the European Union. The EU has described the situation as untenable and contrary to both EU law and World Trade Organisation ru...
Expert Urges EU to Develop Nations Infrastructure for EPA
Dr Jonathan Aremu, a consultant to the Common Investment Market of ECOWAS, has urged the European Union (EU) to show commitment in developing Nigeria's infrastructure before the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is signed. The EPA is a trade agree...
Linking EU Trade and Development Policies
Lessons from the ACP-EU trade negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements.The present study is part of a more comprehensive research project on ‘European policy for global development’ funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation an...
EU Parliament Demands Ban On Trade In Endangered Bluefin Tuna
10 February 2010 - The EU Parliament plenary in Strasbourg today adopted a resolution (1) that calls on the EU [...]...
France backs ban on bluefin tuna trade
Within the next fortnight, France will announce its support for adding bluefin tuna to Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),according to an article published on the website of French newspaper, Le Monde.Th...
International trade and emerging protectionism since the crisis
A stocktake of trade policy in 2009 -- Two thousand and nine was a crisis year for international trade, which suffered its steepest decline since the 1930s. Protectionism returned, reversing an almost three-decade trend of trade liberalisation. But,...
Agri-Trade in the European Union and EU Policy
EU:the world’s sleeping trade giant « Feeding the habitNick Jacobs writes:"[O]ne of the key conundrums Europe faces: how can trade policy facilitate/regulate the flow of foodstuffs in and out of Europe in a way that helps secure European and globa...
Karel De Gucht on international trade – with comments
The Summary of hearing of Karel de Gucht – Trade (12 January 2010) published by the European Parliament mentions most of the big issues facing the future trade Commissioner and the common commercial policy of the European Union, but the answers as...
EU's de Gucht unsure over Doha conclusion this year
The European Union's trade commissioner-designate said on Tuesday he was unsure whether world leaders would achieve their pledge to complete the Doha round of global trade talks this year. The G20 group of rich and emerging economies pledged last yea...
ACTA: Whose Digital Agenda for Europe and the world?
The mysterious ways of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiators raise questions about whose Digital Agenda is being pursued. The lack of transparency results in growing mistrust. Here is a sample of recent texts about the problems f...
EU ACTA addenda
In addition to the blog post EU enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) and ACTA (10 January 2010), there is at least one document I would want to bring to the attention of interested EU citizens, with regard to the trade aspects of intelle...
China’s trade with US decreases in importance
James Kynge in today’s Financial Times disputes the received wisdom that, with the collapse in US consumer demand, China has no alternative but to increase domestic demand. He argues that the huge increase in China’s trade with south-east Asia a...
The countdown to a new gas crisis
For Naftogaz Ukraine, things are very clear: the company has no money to pay for gas. Annual gas war between Russia and Ukraine, most likely, can start again. The president of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, has addressed to the chief of National Bank...
Caribbean banana under treat
Martinique’s banana growers have cause for concern. The European Union has signed an agreement ending the preferential tariffs they previously enjoyed. The conflict between Latin American and ACP banana producers regarding EU customs tariffs had ra...
Keeping an eye on the sugar market
Sugar did not experience the massive price spike in 2007-08 of other commodities, but has been making up for this with a tremendous increase in prices in 2009, driven by poor harvests in Brazil (the world’s largest producer) and strong import deman...
Fiji signs trade and development agreement with the EU
Fiji has signed today an interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. The agreement focuses on trade in goods and provides duty free – quota free access for all products from Fiji to the EU market. It also aims to deepen cooperation in areas...
Doha trade talks: defend EU interests, say MEPs
Success at the Doha trade talks could stimulate economic recovery worldwide, but the European Commission must stick to its negotiating brief on market access for farm and non-farm products and services, said Parliament in a resolution approved in Str...
Updating Economic Partnership Agreements to Today’s Global Challenges
African and Pacific countries continue to negotiate the challenging Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union. These new agreements have the potential to help African countries accelerate their economic growth and develop more re...
Progress in SA-EU negotiations
The deadlock in trade negotiations between the EU and South Africa that threatened to break the world's oldest customs union, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), is set to ease off, thanks to progress being made in ironing out differences betw...
Lamy hails accord ending long running banana dispute
Director General Pascal Lamy applauded yesterday the successful efforts of Latin American banana producing nations, the United States and the European Union to end their long running dispute over trade in bananas. The banana issue is one of the lon...
Trade agreements and their relation to labour standards
This study provides a political and legal review of how international labour standards have been introduced and how those standards have evolved in the international trade arena. The author analyses new trends and negotiations on trade and labour sta...
Banana Wars End
The longest trade dispute in EU history, known as the “Banana Wars”, has ended. Ambassadors from the EU and Latin American countries today agreed to end a dispute over the EU’s banana imports which has lasted for more than 15 years. As part...
Export helpdesk newsletter
The December issue is discussing the new regulations on organic farming entered into force in 2009. The organic farming sector is subject to ever growing interest both among European consumers who opt to buy organic products as an alternative to prod...
Haiti signs the CARIFORUM–EU Economic Partnership Agreement
On December 11, Haiti signed the Economic Partnership Agreement and joins the fourteen Caribbean States that signed the EPA in October 2008. This will strengthen Haiti's ties both with the EU, and with other Caribbean countries. The Cariforum-EU EPA...
More fuel for the protectionist fire
My post of 2 December expressed concern about growing protectionism and China’s contribution to this. China published a circular on 15 November, establishing “an Indigenous Innovation Product Accreditation system”. To be eligible for public...
Transparency and human rights: the WTO's threat to sovereign bad governance
Strengthening the WTO’ Trade Policy Review Mechanisms is not an easy task. Governments happen not to like transparency in trade politics, and even less international scrutiny. Three little quotations show that vividly.
Development more important than quick conclusion of Doha
Governments expressed the will at the seventh ministerial meeting of the WTO to finish the Doha Round of trade negotiations as soon as possible. But the Africa Group still deems development to be a more important priority than a speedy conclusion. De...
Kenya exports to EU face taxes
The European Union has for the first time indicated that the failure by the East African Community to sign a new trade agreement will lead to introduction of taxes on Kenyan exports to Europe. Kenya exports about 450,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetabl...
Closer ties with Latin America jolted by EU Banana deal
As the European Union gets ready to sign an agreement with Latin America to end a 16-year trade war over bananas, Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries are expressing their frustration at the perceived double standards of the Latin American leaders...
New book reveals extent of ‘box shifting’
When the negotiators in the Uruguay Round of the GATT introduced the concept of the ‘green box’ - farm support measures that are minimally or non-trade distorting and therefore exempt from any limits - few would have foreseen that within...
The EU's view of China
A little while ago I gave a talk in Hong Kong on the EU’s view of China. This is what I had to say. The EU views China with a combination of awe, ignorance, fear, confusion and ambition. It is awed by China’s rise. It is largely ignorant of Chin...
A Transatlantic Free Trade Area?
It is perhaps time to revive the idea of a transatlantic free trade area (TAFTA). This is the gist of two papers, one by ECIPE’s Fredrik Erixon and Gernot Pehnelt (http://www.ecipe.org/publications/ecipe-working-papers/a-new-trade-agenda-for-transa...
WTO Ministerial Conference
The Extraordinary Council meeting on General Affairs and External Relations held in Geneva on 30 November 2009 congratulated Commissioner Catherine Ashton on her nomination as the first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Securit...
Protectionism will not help solve climate change
Is it a bad omen – or only a sign of times – that hotel staff in Copenhagen is about to get a much higher Christmas bonus this year than their colleagues in Geneva?
New banana trade deal in the making
It is probable that at some time in the next two weeks, Europe will announce that a final deal on bananas has been achieved. In so doing, it will bring to a close the trade war that it has been fighting with Latin producers and the United States sinc...
Comesa countries get $946 million for trade
The European Union is giving a total of 653 million Euros to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) member countries to finance projects that will help them to develop capacity in trade with other countries.The funds are to benefi...
Hurray, we got ONE Commissioner for trade
Two Belgians will serve the European Union in its highest ranks. Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union’s first President, is known as a mediator, Karel De Gucht, who has been nominated as Trade Commissioner, is notorious as an outspoken defender of...
Bridging the gap in supply chain standards
If products are not tracked from their place of origin to their point of sale, there is no way of locating when and how product problems occur. Tracking products throughout their journey to their final destination is essential if we are to ensure wor...
Bananas: fight against poverty still a priority of the EU strategy?
At a time when European leaders are gathering to welcome the dawn of a new era with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, this change may well prove to be more extensive than anticipated. The coming days could spell the end of the era when Euro...
Written Questions - Trade Negotiations
EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations - request for update on provisions for vulnerable workers 2009 Negotiation of an EU-Andean Community [...]...
Global food security 'threatened by liberalisation'
Liberalising global agricultural trade without any regulation would threaten global food security as private investment funds would buy huge amounts of land in developing countries and produce for profit rather than to feed the poor, Jacques Carles,...
Baroness Ashton attacked over proposed 'banana wars' deal
Lady Ashton, Brussels' new foreign policy chief, was accused of abandoning Europe's commitment to tackle poverty, as African and Caribbean governments reacted angrily to a proposed deal to end the 16-year "banana wars". Ashton, who is currently Europ...
Study of free trade agreements involving developing countries/LDCs
In the context of the EPA negotiations the purpose of the (October 2009) study by the GRET and the AFD is to help fuel the French authorities’ reflection on different interpretations of article XXIV by analysing examples of existing FTAs that have...
Uganda to market vanilla as high-end export
'Embedded’ trade analyst helps establish a network of services –the first of its kind in continental Africa. For food producers all over the world, the French gourmet chef is perhaps the most discerning of critics. With one nod of approval decidi...
Banana wars’ deal may be signed this week
The “banana wars”, the longestrunning dispute in the history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is close to being settled. European and Latin American trade officials are pushing for a deal to be signed this week. As a result, the European Un...
New standard for 3rd Countries' export companies to EU
A new international standard was drawn up for Third Countries' organic export companies to EU by Italian Certification Body ICEA (the first to apply for the EU Commission accreditation) together with the other ACB (Accredited Certification Bodies). T...
Cariforum-EU Council
The 2973rd Council meeting on General Affairs held in Brussels on 16 November 2009 adopted two decisions on the creation of a joint Cariforum-EU Council, as provided for by a economic partnership agreement between Cariforum (15 Caribbean states) and...
Uganda: coffee traders trained
Many times coffee producers and traders are caught unaware by the volatility in international prices which leads them into making losses and being less competitive. This can be avoided, if the traders were equipped with knowledge and techniques in pr...
Protectionism, Regulations and Globalization
A story of deglobalization...
EU provides EUR 1 billion for trade facilitation in developing countries
The European Union has today presented to the World Trade Organization the trade facilitation projects it has financed between 2006 and 2008. The review shows that the EU has spent EUR 1.01 billion on 95 projects related to capacity building and tech...
ACTA negotiations, very cloak and dagger
Last week’s Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations in Seoul were marred by reports of a leaked European Commission document, pertaining to the Internet Chapter of the talks, and the ensuing reactions. On Wednesday last week, rep...
Is the EU the new coloniser?
Despite a rhetoric of human rights and development, the European Union is still far from utilising its unequalled economic and commercial power for a fairer approach to global relations. Recently, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique signed in...
Report on Trade Restriction Measures
The European Commission has published a report on potentially trade restrictive measures introduced between October 2008 and October 2009 by the European Union’s (EU) major trade partners. 223 new trade restrictive measures were reported as pl...
Linking Doha and Copenhagen
It is the morning after the financial crisis; the first seeds of economic revival planted at emergency summits last winter now blossom in autumn. Yet on the horizon lays a real risk of new financial woes – inflation, long term unemployment and...
New international Fairtrade Towns website launched
A new International Fairtrade Towns website has been launched on July 14 by the Fairtrade Foundation with partners across Europe. The new website is aimed at connecting nearly 700 Fairtrade towns in 18 countries, by combining information about the hi...
Domestic transparency and protectionism
In its ‘Message to the G20: Defeating protectionism begins at home’, the Lowy Institute advocates a strengthening of domestic tranparency mechanisms around the world. The study also presents the example of the Australian Productivity Commission t...
Is China trying to screw the EU?
Is this WTO complaint taken by China against the EU regarding the importation of screws the first sign of an increasingly aggrssive Chinese attitude towards the EU regarding trade? With China being the only major economy with postive economic growth,...
Is your national trade association (engineering sectors) represented at a European Level?
Our vision is to actively promote the development in Europe of the necessary competitive framework conditions under which our companies can flourish, provide growth and employment both today and in the long term as manufacturers in the EU, and to ens...
Truths and myths about the openness of EU trade policy
The EU established trade preferences for imports from developing countries in various forms. A new p...
Written Questions - Trade Negotiations
Negotiation of an EU-Andean Community Agreement 2009 Trade Agreement with Central America Sustainability Impact assessment for Trade Agreement with Central America 2009 Response Central America [...]...
The amount of fair trade products on the market
European consumers are dissatisfied with the availability of environmentally friendly or ethically p...
EU, US Take China to WTO over Raw Materials
Both the European Union and the US have requested consultations with China in WTO over export restrictions for raw materials. According to Catherine Ashton, EU Trade Commissioner: “the Chinese restrictions on raw materials distort competition and i...
The man who did not want to go out into the dark (or: How the WTO could tackle hidden protectionism)
There is a story of a man crawling in the middle of the night under a streetlight. He sees a policeman watching him and explains: ‘I am looking for my keys.’ The policeman: ‘Are you sure that you have lost them right here?’ The man responds:...
Italy, fair trade grows by 20% in 2008
2008 ended in a very positive way for Fairtrade certified products. Despite the ticklish period, pur...
EU Aid for Trade activities in Africa
Africa is receiving the largest share of EU Aid for Trade funds - EUR2.73 billion in 2007. Support t...
Eastern - Southern Africa: EC trade project
The European Commission has today pledged EUR115million for an ambitious project to improve infrastr...
Bananas: ACP development and trade liberalisation
The ACP is to lose both much of its vital existing tariff preference on bananas and much of the fund...
Aid for Trade and EPAs: Commissioner Ashton in Zambia
EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton will visit the Zambian capital Lusaka from the 5th to 7th Apr...
Codified Regulation on the Common Rules for Imports
The new, codified Regulation (EC) No 260/2009 on the common rules for imports has been published in the Official Journal. It represents a codification of Council Regulation (EC) No 3285/94 with only such formal amendments as are required by the codif...
European Union: Common import rules
Here is a piece of EU legislation of interest to ’the whole world’. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:084:0001:0017:EN:PDFCouncil Regulation (EC) No 260/2009 of 26 February 2009 on the common rules for imports (Codif...
A Free Trade Area EU-Korea would hurt the climate
Following in US footsteps the EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement with Korea during the last two years, which is on the point of being finalised. If signed and ratified by both parties it would progressively abolish duties and other import...
Codified Regulation on the Community Trade Mark
Today a new, codified Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 on the Community trade mark has been published in the Official Journal. It repeals the previous Regulation (EC) No 40/94.
Community Trade Mark Regulation
The Community trade mark Regulation has been recast in a codified version, published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 24.3.2009 L 78/1. Officially, this text with EEA relevance is called:Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 of 26 F...
Mrs Ashton calls on EU, US to stand up for free trade
EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton has delivered a speech at the Carnegie Endowment in Washingto...
