EU

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer recently updated Congress on on-going and potential U.S. trade negotiations. Among other things, he acknowledged that mainland China is not currently on pace to buy the amounts of U.S. agricultural and energy products that were agreed under the phase one trade agreement, due at least in part to the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. More

An important EU-UK summit is expected later in June, where both sides are due to decide whether the current deadline for negotiating a post-Brexit trade agreement should be extended beyond the end of December 2020. Ahead of the summit, the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) has said that the UK should commit to not undercutting the EU’s environmental standards following the end of the Brexit transition period. More

On 15 May 2020, after the conclusion of the third round of trade talks between the EU and the UK, both sides stated that negotiations had become deadlocked over the UK’s refusal to commit to EU environmental, social, labour and regulatory standards. The stalemate underlines the lack of progress that has been made so far. The two sides remain deeply divided ahead of a high-level summit due to take place between EU leaders and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in June 2020. More

On 24 April 2020, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that Brexit talks have made “disappointing” progress following a week of talks between the EU’s negotiating team and the UK’s negotiating team. Mr Barnier accused the UK of seeking to “slow down discussions” by failing to give ground on key issues, including fisheries and a level playing field. More