Tag: bilateral trade

China and Africa will be an important engine for economic growth in the next 20 years and Europe should seize the opportunity to engage with them strategically and not see them as a threat, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said Wednesday (15 May) in Brussels, where he attended the European Business Summit.

A new study for the Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy (AFASE) says that EU tariffs on solar panels from China could lead to 242,000 European job losses in the next three years.

A dispute over how far to open agricultural markets to imports is holding up a free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, officials familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday (5 February).

The high-level working group on growth and jobs, set up at the last EU-US summit in November 2011, will give the go-ahead to launch negotiations for a transatlantic trade agreement, said Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

The European Union and Singapore agreed terms of a free trade deal on Sunday (16 December), a move that should further open the Asian country's markets for financial services and make it easier for European automakers to export there.

EU trade ministers overcame resistance from the car industry on Thursday (29 November) and agreed to start negotiations to create a free-trade pact with Japan, Europe's most ambitious step so far in a strategy to tie up deals with the world's biggest economies.

SPECIAL REPORT / A European Commission communication to re-launch European industrial policy – to be published next month and seen by EurActiv – will face diffidence from member states left unconvinced by a string of unfulfilled initiatives and divided over what such a policy should deliver.

China is considering price control mechanisms and tightly regulated markets for its emissions trading schemes (ETS) in a bid to avoid the price volatility and scandals that have hit Europe's ETS, as surveys show the country has reached European per-capita emission levels.

The European Commission has hailed an EU trade agreement signed Tuesday (26 June) with Colombia and Peru as an exciting investment opportunity but NGOs and trade unions have expressed concerns over social and human rights record of the Latin American countries.

Tired of seeing European companies blocked from Chinese public tenders, the European Commission is preparing plans later this month that will allow individual EU countries to bar foreign bids from countries that refuse to open up their public procurement markets, EurActiv can reveal.

The European Union and Japan made commitments on Saturday (28 May) to launch "pre-negotiations" in view of signing a free trade agreement (FTA). But they failed to set a precise timeline and maintained opposing views on the automotive sector and other sensitive areas.

The EU budget must be slashed, according to UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, who warned of a "backlash" across Europe if citizens are hit with cutbacks while Brussels' budget is untouched.

A new Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and India could make it more difficult for the world's poorest patients to access antiretroviral drugs, according to humanitarian aid group, Médecins Sans Frontières.

During a state visit to Beijing, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged China to let its currency rise more quickly against the euro – a message that EU officials are expected to echo in a visit this week (28 November), as the bloc's trade deficit with the booming Asian economy soars. 

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has pleaded for the EU and Russia to stop acting "like two cities joined only by a narrow road and a gas pipeline" and focus on building a long-term, mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship rather than getting caught up in short-term political tactics.

The European Commission has announced that it will not renew limits imposed more than two years ago on textiles and clothing from China after a dramatic surge in low-cost imports from the Asian giant threatened to cause serious damage to the European manufacturing industry. 

China must take more aggressive action against companies exporting dangerous toys and appliances into the EU, said Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva during a five-day visit to Beijing.

The EU and South Korea have formally initiated negotiations on a bilateral pact that could give a €20 billion boost to their trade relations, one month after the Asian country signed a similar deal with Europe's largest trade rival, the US.

EU foreign ministers have given the go-ahead for free-trade negotiations with key trading partners in Asia, in a move that WTO chief Pascal Lamy says could divert attention from talks on a global trade pact.

Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will this week present plans to negotiate deals aimed at breaking down barriers to trade with fast-growing Asian economies.

On a four-day trip to China, Trade Commissioner Mandelson urged the Asian giant to take responsibility for the huge impact it is having on world trade and the environment.

The EU’s new ‘China strategy’ warns Beijing that it must play by WTO rules and open up its markets to European businesses if it wants the EU to stop raising protectionist barriers.

MEPs have backed a report which calls on the Commission to pay more attention to India and open talks on a free-trade agreement.

After the suspension of the WTO Doha negotiations, the Commission looks ready to refocus its commercial strategy on bilateral free trade agreements so as to catch up with the US and Japan.