Tag: trade
The EU’s trade policy can be sustainable – and here is how
With the failure of the World Trade Organisation to address climate issues in trade, BEUC's Mykyta Sobko looks at how to tackle the pressing issues of sustainability and consumer concerns in trade policies.
Why privacy safeguards in trade deals need urgent improvement
The EU and 22 other countries are closing in on a huge deal to liberalise trade in services. One of the few pending issues in this Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) is the question of how to make sure trade...
Whipping up a transatlantic trade agreement? Shop wisely.
The EU and US negotiators of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) meet in New York this week for the 13th round of negotiations. In the media storm that accompanies TTIP it is not easy to keep a bird’s-eye...
Will regulatory cooperation in TTIP become a straight-jacket for EU law making?
Regulatory cooperation might sound like a relatively benign and straightforward part of trade agreements. It is actually at the very core of TTIP, a trade deal being negotiated between the US and the EU which would be the world’s largest....
Listen up European Commission! Parliament issues strong message on services trade deal
Unnoticed by most, the European Union is negotiating a major agreement on trade in services. It brings together 22 countries plus the EU, and lines up huge players including the United States, Japan and Canada. Its aim is to liberalise...
Who is going to pay the bill for regulatory cooperation in TTIP?
Ever since I read the European Commission’s proposal on regulatory cooperation I have been trying to figure out how this system will work in practice. One thing which intrigued me was the price tag for engaging in this kind of...
“TTIP won’t lower standards” – Well then let’s break down how – UPDATE
Update: 11 September 2015 In this blog, I urged EU policy-makers to give us strong and tangible reassurances that TTIP wouldn’t lower standards. Well, they need to do a better job. The peace of the Brussels’ summer was indeed troubled...
Take aways from the ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlement: the TTIP Achilles heel?’ conference
9 December 2014, Renaissance Hotel
Cosmetic products: What TTIP will not make up
On 16/04/2015 this blog post was updated to reflect the change in the number of banned substances used in cosmetics in EU from 1,328 to 1,377. Cosmetic products have become an indispensable part of our daily routine – from toothpaste to...
What the recent ECJ ruling means for transparency in the TTIP negotiations
By BEUC’s Senior Legal Officer, Kostas Rossoglou Last week in Brussels, scores of EU and US officials held the 6th negotiating round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal. Despite press conferences and civil society briefings the real substance...