Tomorrow, April 27, German Chancellor Merkel will visit Trump to discuss trade policies and next steps to avoid an escalating trade war with the US.
US President Trump has given the EU a one-month exemption from new measures to increase import tariffs on steel and aluminium entering the US market- until May 1st. The EU wants this exemption to be permanent and is already discussing a mini deal with the US.
While the USA and China are stepping into one the potential biggest fights on trade measures in decades, Friends of the Earth Europe is presenting concrete proposals for an innovative trade agenda that serves citizens and the environment.
The European Court of Justice ruled today that controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in the Netherlands-Slovakia bilateral investment treaty are not compatible with EU law, raising fundamental questions about the legality of other EU trade deals which include the measure. [1]
The next round of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and Indonesia start today in Solo, Indonesia. Civil society organisations from Europe and Indonesia, including Friends of the Earth Europe and Friends of the Earth Indonesia, will meet in parallel to discuss the consequences of a potential agreement.
162 organisations from across Europe have today called for European trade policy to be made more democratic.
Their statement was handed over to European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström at the first meeting of a newly established expert group on EU trade agreements.
Over the last few years, many issues have brought people into the streets in their thousands to demonstrate against the dodgy transatlantic trade deals TTIP and CETA. But perhaps the most contentious has been the issue of ‘corporate courts’ proposed for the frozen EU-US trade deal, TTIP – in trade jargon, known as an Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) mechanism.
A new game released today sheds light on the murky EU-Canada trade deal (CETA), days after it came into force – provisionally. A large number of citizens struggle to know what CETA actually means for them and what can be done to stop the deal, which still lacks approval from most EU member state parliaments. The mobile and desktop game 'Dodgy Deals' lets players face some of the dangerous features of trade deals like CETA and shows what is at stake.
The controversial CETA trade deal between Canada and the European Union has largely come into force today amid sharp criticism from Friends of the Earth Europe. The early implementation – known as 'provisional application' – comes even though most national parliaments have not yet begun to debate or vote on the deal. [1]
Commenting on today’s State of the European Union speech by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, Leida Rijnhout from Friends of the Earth Europe said:
“We need a fundamental rethink of the kind of Europe we want – in some areas President Juncker seems to recognise this, but in others it is very much business as usual. It remains to be seen whether his proposals will go far enough to really bridge the gap between the EU its citizens.
Friends of the Earth Europe welcomes the decision of the Belgian government to file a request for an opinion to the European Court of Justice on the Investment Court System (ICS) included in the EU-Canada trade deal CETA [1]. The ECJ will now examine if the ICS is compatible with the European Treaties. An opinion from the Court finding an incompatibility would put the future of the CETA ratification in doubt.