On 18 April 2018 the European Commission (the “Commission“) presented the finalised text of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (“EPA“) to the European Council and thereby took the first step in the EPA’s ratification process at the EU level.  Getting to this point took significant time and effort: the first of 18 rounds of negotiations … Read more

Key points The ministers responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of 11 countries have announced that the core elements of a Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are agreed (CPTPP). While much of the original TPP looks to remain intact, 20 provisions of the TPP are suspended, in particular with respect to Investor–State Dispute … Read more

On 6 July 2017 the EU and Japan announced an agreement in principle on their Economic Partnership Agreement (“EPA“).  The scale of this agreement is eye-popping: once in effect the EPA will cover nearly 40 percent of all goods exports, 10 percent of the Earth’s population, and about 30 percent of global GDP.  The breadth … Read more

As discussed in our blog post here, the TPP is a major free trade agreement between twelve countries in the Asia Pacific and the Americas that has been under negotiation for over four years. These twelve countries are the USA; Canada; Japan; Australia; New Zealand; Singapore; Vietnam; Malaysia; Chile; Peru; Mexico; and Brunei. On 24 … Read more

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb and Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng today signed the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) in Canberra, following the signing of a Declaration of Intent in November 2014 during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Australia (see our articles: Australia and China conclude free trade agreement and Australia China FTA to be concluded … Read more