ISDS Case Map
EU
European Union
The European Union wants to restart talks with Egypt over a wider free trade deal that could help double the value of commercial exchanges in the next few years, the EU ambassador to Cairo said on Monday.
There's a strong feeling among experts in East Africa that by insisting on the inclusion of the "most favoured nation", the EU is holding the region at gunpoint to accept a clause that would legally tie their hands regarding who to trade with besides Europe.
Jordan and the European Union on Thursday called on Arab Mediterranean countries to join Agadir free trade agreement between the Kingdom, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
After over 10 years of objecting to demands by the European Union in the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, ECOWAS, last week, suddenly reversed its position and made serious and incomprehensible concessions to the EU.
Negotiators from West Africa and the EU have put pen to paper on a €42 billion-a-year free trade deal after 10 years of haggling, but ongoing talks with East African states remain mired in fine print.
A stir greeted last year’s announcement by the South African government that it would not be renegotiating bilateral investment agreements with major trading partners such as the EU. However, it now seems as if a lot of dust has settled around the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill, which is set to replace the agreements.
“We think that it might be in about six months that we have a text, which will be not the final text, I think that for the final text we have to wait two years — it will be 2015,” the EU’s ambassador to Canada said.
Ministers from East Africa Community Partner States and the European Commissioner for Trade met in Brussels on 30th January 2014 to conclude three days of negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement.
The Gulf Cooperation Council is increasingly looking eastward to secure trade accords, which in itself reflects the difficulties in concluding free trade agreements with the likes of the European Union.
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Wednesday warned the Aquino administration against entering into a bilateral free trade agreement with the European Union, saying the forging of such an agreement will lead to the flooding of imported fish from EU member-states.
