Trade deals van over de hele wereld: november

Image
World Trade News (Image: teal world viewed from space with connection lines spreading across the image)

In de serie “Handelsverdragen van over de hele wereld” geven we je een maandelijkse update waarin je snel kunt lezen wat er gebeurd in de vele onderhandelingen die er gaande zijn op het gebied van handelsverdragen.

Een snelle samenvatting van het nieuws over handelsverdragen van de afgelopen maand.

Het Verenigd Koninkrijk en de Oekraïne

Terwijl het Verenigd Koninkrijk nog steeds aan het onderhandelen is met de Europese Unie over de Brexit Deal, heeft het wel al weer een ander handelsverdrag weten te sluiten. De eerste was met Japan. We schreven daar al over in de editie van vorige maand.

The trade element of the new UK-Ukraine Agreement envisages preferential treatment on a range of goods and services. It is based on the 2014 EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Around 98% of Ukrainian goods will now receive greater access to the UK market, with tariff quotas maintained in most cases.

The deal offers a range of advantages for post-Brexit Britain. Crucially, freer trade with Ukraine will make a significant contribution to the UK’s food security. Britain is a major food importer and the new agreement means British consumers will benefit from a wider variety of affordable, high-quality Ukrainian products.

Lees hier meer.

Het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Colombia

Colombia en het Verenigd Koninkrijk houden de handels afspraken zoals ze nu ook al zijn met de Europese Unie. Fresh Plaza schrijft hierover:

The Colombian House of Representatives approved the Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United Kingdom, which was signed in May 2019 before the UK left the European Union.

This agreement guarantees that the United Kingdom will maintain the same tariff preferences that the Colombian products have had to enter that market since 2013 under the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union.

In het persbericht van de Britse overheid staat het volgende:

Trade between the UK and Ukraine was worth £1.5 billion in 2019. Top UK goods exports to Ukraine were aircraft (£79m), medicinal and pharmaceutical products (£61m) and cars (£52m). The UK imported £177 million of cereals and £182 million of iron and steel in 2019.

This agreement is designed to take effect when the EU-Ukraine agreement ceases to apply to the UK at the end of the transition period. The agreement will be subject to the domestic parliamentary procedures in both the UK and Ukraine before it is brought into force.

The UK has now signed or agreed in principle trade agreements with 50 countries. This includes the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which was agreed in principle on 11 September 2020. Total UK trade with these countries was worth £144 billion in 2019.

Lees het hele persbericht hier.

China en de Verenigde Staten

China en de Verenigde Staten sloten al een fase 1 handelsverdrag eerder dit jaar. China loopt nog steeds achter qua import uit de Verenigde Staten.

The Department of Agriculture late last week announced China has followed through on 71 percent of its Phase One Economic and trade agreement commitments.

USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office says that China has purchased over $23 billion in agricultural products to date.

Outstanding sales of U.S. corn to China are at an all-time high of 8.7 million tons, and U.S. soybeans sales for the marketing year 2021 are off to the strongest start in history.

China en Cambodja

China’s commerce ministry said on Monday it has signed a free trade agreement with Cambodia to promote further development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

The agreement covers a wide range of sectors including trade, tourism and agriculture, under which both countries will offer tariff cuts for each other’s products, the ministry said in a statement on its website. 

Lees hier verder.

De Europese Unie en Mercosur

Het gaat nog steeds niet goed tussen de Europese Unie en Mercosur. Het handelsverdrag waarover 20 jaar is onderhandeld staat nog steeds op losse schroeven.

Mercopress schrijft:

...the European Parliament symbolically rejected the European Union-Mercosur free-trade agreement due to what several parliamentarians have called “deep concern about the environmental policy of Jair Bolsonaro.”

In an unprecedented move, Parliament’s plenary approved an amendment in a report on the application of European trade policy, emphasizing that the “EU-Mercosur agreement cannot be ratified in its current form.”

This amendment received 345 votes in favor, 295 against, and 56 abstentions. It is highly symbolic and not mandatory, but it reflects the extremely difficult environment to implement the bi-regional agreement which has been negotiated over the past 20 years.

Lees hier het hele verhaal.

Noorwegen en China

Noorwegen en China proberen opnieuw een handelsverdrag te sluiten. De onderhandelingen waren eerder stopgezet, toen de Nobelprijs werd uitgereikt aan een Chinese dissident in 2010.

While relations between Norway and China have thawed, lately, Norway appears eager to do more to finally get the free trade deal done, with Chinese construction companies winning or in the running for big-ticket construction deals in the high-value Norwegian market…

Lees hierover meer in het artikel op Seafoods.com. Hierin worden ook andere deals besproken waar China aan werkt, zoals met Pakistan en Iran.

Handelsovereenkomsten zijn krachtige stukken in het geopolitieke schaakspel

An interessant artikel in de San Diego UnionTribune over hoe handelsovereenkomsten soms gebruikt worden voor geopolitieke doeleinden.

Trade agreements can be as powerful as military force for achieving a country’s strategic objectives. An example of this was a trade agreement orchestrated by the United States in 2016 that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said was “as important to me as another aircraft carrier.” He did not have to add that the agreement would help check an aggressive China.

Lees hier het hele verhaal.

Overig nieuws over handelsverdragen

Libië en Turkije - Libya-Turkey trade agreement enters into force

Iran en Syrië - Iran, Syria confer on signing free trade agreement

Bangladesh en Bhutan - Bangladesh-Bhutan likely to sign Preferential Trade Agreement soon

Israel en Zuid-Korea - Israel-Korea free trade agreement to stress tech cooperation

De Verenigde Staten en Taiwan - What Next For A U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement?

Nepal en Bangladesh - Nepal, Bangladesh to sign preferential trade arrangement by 2020-end