Parliament approves EU-New Zealand free trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Trade deal sets out unique sanctionable commitments on climate and labour standards  EU geographical indications protected  Creates opportunities for EU firms to enter procurement market on equal footing with local businesses  The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will remove 100% of New Zealand tariffs on […]

How streamlining services trade can accelerate growth in the Middle East and Africa

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Børge Brende, President, World Economic Forum, Majid Al-Kasabi, Minister of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce of Saudi Arabia Streamlining services frameworks can unlock trade and investment opportunities, grow economic competitiveness, and underpin new sources of inclusion and growth.Two recent […]

EU and the Philippines to start scoping exercise for a free trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the EU and the Philippines announced their intention to explore the relaunch of negotiations for an ambitious, modern, and balanced free trade agreement (FTA) – with sustainability at its core. The EU and the Philippines will shortly kick off a bilateral ‘scoping process’ […]

EU and New Zealand sign ambitious free trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The EU and New Zealand have today signed their free trade agreement (FTA), which will deliver significant gains for the EU. The deal will cut some €140 million a year in duties for EU companies from the first year of application. As a result, […]

Africa’s logistics sector set to deliver results as free trade agreement kicks in

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Landry Signé, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution, Chido Munyati, Head of Regional Agenda, Africa, World Economic Forum Intra-African trade has long struggled to cope with the continent’s inadequate logistics and freight sector.But, as the African […]

From Australia’s free trade agreements to clean-tech subsidies: 6 things to know about international trade this month

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Kimberley Botwright, Head, Sustainable Trade, World Economic Forum 1. Goods trade growth to slow in coming months: WTO Global trade growth is likely to slow in late 2022 and into 2023 because of economic headwinds, according to the latest […]

EU exports under Free Trade Agreements surpass €1 trillion

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. EU trade deals mean increased exports, more stable economic relations and secure access to resources, a new report out today shows. EU exports to preferential partners for the first time surpassed €1 trillion in 2021, according to the Commission’s 2nd Annual Report on the […]

EU-Japan trade agreement enters into force

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Japan enters into force on 1 February 2019. Businesses and consumers across Europe and in Japan can now take advantage of the largest open trade zone in the world. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude […]

EU-Singapore free trade deal gets green light in Trade Committee

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Trade Committee MEPs agreed on Thursday to the EU-Singapore free trade agreement, a stepping stone to cooperation between the EU and Southeast Asia. The agreement will remove virtually all tariffs between the two parties at the latest in five years. It will liberalise trade […]

Parliament endorses landmark EU-Japan free trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. The European Parliament gave its consent to the EU’s trade agreement with Japan, the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated by the EU. The Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan, approved with 474 votes to 152 with 40 abstentions on Wednesday, will […]

Trade Committee MEPs give greenlight to landmark EU-Japan trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. The European Parliament’s Trade Committee gave its recommendation to approve the EU’s landmark trade agreement with Japan on Monday. The Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan will eventually remove almost all tariffs on goods. It opens up services, including e-commerce, maritime transport, […]

EU and Australia launch talks for a broad trade agreement

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström together with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trade Minister of Australia Steven Ciobo officially launched negotiations for a comprehensive and ambitious trade agreement between the EU and Australia in the Australian capital of Canberra. The aim of […]

“China will strive to enhance the performance of economic growth”, President Xi highlights from the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos

The first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) began with the opening plenary with Xi Jinping yesterday, President of the People’s Republic of China, monopolizing the interest of the global economic status quo convening these days at the Swiss Alps. This was the first time ever a Chinese President accepts the Davos invite and naturally all the […]

Will CETA be implemented after eight long years or it will be vetoed by the EU citizen?

It was last Sunday when the EU and Canada signed the free trade agreement CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), despite the protest taking place just outside the European Council’s building. This deal is meant to create more jobs and growth through stronger economic relations. However, the approval of the national parliaments in Europe and […]

What the future holds for the EU – China relations?

EU and China relations are perfectly depicted in a passage from a European Union External Action service Press release issued recently. It says, “While acknowledging China’s advancement of the economic and social wellbeing of its people in the past 25 years, the EU also hopes to see greater space open up for discussion and debate […]

EU-US trade deal: Europe to Americanize its social model?

It can’t be both. Either the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht hadn’t recovered from the transatlantic trip hangover, while speaking in Washington on Tuesday, or he thinks we are all morons. He said: “I invite all Europeans to also discuss their concerns about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) (free trade deal)… Because […]

Glaringly false reassurances about the repercussions of the EU-US free trade agreement

Yesterday, Karel De Gucht, the EU Trade Commissioner delivered a speech in Düsseldorf, to reassure his German audience that the EU-US negotiations to conclude a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (Free Trade Agreement), will not lead to abandonment of EU health rules that ban genetically modified food and beef with hormones nor will it give […]

EU Commission – US hasten talks to avoid NGO reactions on free trade agreement

Last Friday 15 November the European Union and the United States concluded the second round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations in Brussels. The TTIP is a kind of enlarged free trade agreement involving the two largest trading partners of the world. It covers mainly the impediments after the borders (regulations and technical barriers) […]

EU-US trade agreement talks to be affected by American bugs

Bugging EU institutions’ premises and members states’ offices in the US by American secret agencies may seriously affect the progress of negotiations for the conclusion of a Free Trade and Investments Agreement between the two largest trading partners of the world. While the first reactions by EU dignitaries, after the revealing publications by Der Spiegel […]

EU–US: What is the real exchange in a Free Trade Agreement?

The usually slow-moving European Commission over issues like free trade agreements, this time didn’t lose its time and President Manuel Barroso announced yesterday that, “the European Union and the United States have decided to initiate internal procedures to launch negotiations with the aim of reaching a ground-breaking free trade agreement: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment […]

Does the EU want GMOs and meat with hormones from the US?

The prospective drafting of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the United States is developing into a major issue and as things evolved last week, it seems that this may lead the EU into a new division, between France on the one side and the free trade lovers Britain and […]

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