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Chinese investment in the EU

Briefing 23-05-2014

From ports to cars to food processing, China's foreign direct investment (FDI) in the EU concerns a wide variety of economy sectors. Negotiations on an EU-China bilateral investment treaty were launched in 2013, to ensure more reciprocity in business relationships.

Despite long-running negotiations, there appears little prospect that the EU-India Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement will be signed in 2014. Pending such an agreement, EU-India trade relations are regulated under their WTO commitments. Several recent disputes between India and the EU at WTO level illustrate the difficulties faced in the trading relationship.

China-Iceland Free Trade Agreement

In sintesi 12-09-2013

China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with Iceland earlier this year. This is China's first FTA with a western European state. Once in force it will waive most tariffs in trade between the two countries. However, the tiny size of Iceland's market and the fact that the agreement does not provide low-tariff entry for China's products onto other European markets raises questions over China's motives. In particular, it is suggested that China is using this FTA to promote its strategic goals, such ...

In more than 260 trans­boundary watercourses around the world, the closely linked issues of energy, water and agriculture cause difficulties. Tensions between energy-starved Tajikistan and cotton-producing Uzbekistan over the planned Rogun hydro-electric dam illustrate the continuing 'water versus energy' debate. At the same time, the scarcity of water resources in Central Asia is often caused by mismanagement.

Businesses across the world are increasingly interdependent, in so-called "global value chains". As the largest exporter of services in the world the EU has a strong interest in the liberalisation of services. In the light of stagnation in the Doha Round of trade talks, a separate international agreement on trade in services is seen as a way to increase efficiencies in production carried out around the globe. Some 20 countries, led by the United States, the EU and Japan, have recently begun negotiating ...

With the aim of overcoming stalemate in the Doha Round, a number of WTO members, including the EU and the US, are about to launch negotiations on a plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).

The EU framework for arms exports

In sintesi 27-06-2013

The aim of the EU arms-trade control framework is to strike a balance between the economic interests of Member States and preventing irresponsible exports to countries that violate human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Following the Arab Spring, the European Union and its Member States have established - on a Polish initiative - the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) in June 2012. The new instrument is aimed at facilitating rapid and flexible funding to political actors in countries on their way towards democratisation, which may not otherwise be able to access EU funding. Reaction to the establishment of EED has varied.

Principal EU-US trade disputes

In sintesi 22-04-2013

The prospect of transatlantic free trade talks has brought the EU-US trade relationship, the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, into the spotlight. Trade disputes account for a small fraction of the total volume of this trade, around 2% according to the Commission, despite often receiving prominent media coverage. But a number of long-running disputes between the EU and the US are indicative of the challenges negotiators of a bilateral trade agreement face.

Recent safety-related accidents in garment factories in Bangladesh have once again turned public attention to the sustainability of the global cotton value chain. Sensitive issues relate to the usage of forced labour and child labour in some countries, disrespect for human and labour rights in the cotton production throughout the entire value chain and its impact on the environment caused by the widespread use of pesticides and its huge need of freshwater resources.