The Mediterranean is a vibrant economic geography that could grow significantly. This paper reviews the trade relations between the EU and Southern Neighbourhood Countries (SNCs) - their history and the current status of the bilateral trade agreements. While these agreements have many...

The crisis-struck EU finds it increasingly difficult to engage in trade negotiations with large-sized economies that would have a meaningful impact on growth. Some parts of the European car industry are opposing a FTA with Japan due to defensive interests following the crisis in EU car...

Despite major advancements in the Japan-EU FTA (JEUFTA) negotiations, the talks remain difficult in the railway sector. These difficulties flow largely from the fact that the Japanese railways are organized on a radically different legal and economic basis than the railway systems in the EU....

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was launched with highest of ambitions. Yet after more than 500 days of negotiations, the results are plainly discouraging. The EU and the US misunderstood each other's intention on market access, and deteriorated into retaliatory...

Services liberalisation has perhaps suffered from the deadlock of the WTO more than any other area of trade. As the discussions of a potential plurilateral agreement amongst a select group of countries continue, more questions are raised than answered. In a new policy brief by Hosuk...

Following an FTA with Korea, the EU now takes up the ambitious task of negotiating an FTA with Japan. Inarguably, "big" FTAs are the way forward in the search for growth, but in parallel, the EU should aim to diversify its regional outreach to rebalance trade accounts. In this sense, Taiwan has...

This paper concerns Europe’s ability to continue its trade strategy into large scale FTAs that are necessary to sustain EU industrial capacities. The first challenge for Europe is the EU- Japan FTA, whose merits have been met with scepticism due to Japan's lack of openness. Such notions are...

Four years after the launch of Global Europe - the European Union's trade strategy from 2006 - policymakers are now confronted with the first negotiated agreement with one of the rising economic powers in the Far East. The EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (hereafter EUKOR) is the first of Europe's...

Given the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and several intra-Asian agreements, the EU is focused on large-sized free trade agreements (FTAs) to avoid trade diversion and to maintain Europe's ability to set the trade policy agenda. The EU is now negotiating with all TPP countries except Australia,...

The UK's road to an independent trade policy has reached a critical moment. Within the next six months Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) containing long term arrangements and rules could be finalised with the United States and / or European Union, who between them constitute around 65% of UK trade....