On 5 May 2021, the European Commission (Commission) issued its proposal for a Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the EU market. This follows on from the Commission’s White Paper issued in June 2020 (see our blog post here) and the extensive public consultation that ensued. Read more

At the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (“EU-Japan EPA”) ceased to apply to trade with the UK.  In anticipation of this change the UK and Japan signed on 23 October 2020 a “roll-over” or continuity trade agreement that largely mirrors the terms of the EU-Japan … Read more

On 17 June 2020, the European Commission (“the Commission”) issued a “White Paper on levelling the playing field as regards foreign subsidies” (“the White Paper”), launching a public consultation on a number of ambitious and far reaching possible options and legal instruments to address distortions in the European Union’s (“EU”) internal market resulting from foreign … Read more

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU creates a number of unprecedented issues for international agreements in which the EU participates, whether by itself, together with its Member States or even where the EU it is not a party but to which its Member States have become parties acting on behalf of the  … Read more

This article was originally published on 26 February 2020, but was updated on 8 July 2020 On 30 June 2019, the EU and Vietnam signed the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (“EU-Vietnam FTA“) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (“EU-Vietnam IPA“), concluding negotiations that began in 2012. The European Parliament gave consent to both agreements in … Read more

On 10 February 2020, the UK initiated its first so-called “transition review” trade defence investigation. The investigation concerns EU anti-dumping duties imposed via Commission Implementing Regulation 2015/110 on certain welded tubes and pipes of iron or non-alloy steel originating in Belarus, China, and Russia. The current EU anti-dumping duties range from 10.1% to 90.6%.  They … Read more

The below brief addresses a number of interesting developments that occurred in the competition space across Africa during the course of 2019. In South Africa, we consider the amendments to the Competition Act, the enforcement approach to the new buyer power and price discrimination provisions, outcomes of the market inquiries into private healthcare, the grocery … Read more