EU Updates Status of its Free Trade Agreements
If the EU finalized all its current free trade talks tomorrow, it would add 2.2 percent to its Gross Domestic Product, or $357 billion, the European Commission said. That's equivalent to adding a country the size of Austria or Denmark…
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to the EU economy, it said. The EC listed the key free trade agreements (FTAs) now being negotiated or considered. This month, EU countries directed the EC to begin talks with Japan. There is also a high-level working group for growth and jobs with the U.S. which is talking about how to further integrate the EU-U.S. Trade relationship, possibly through an FTA. Also under consideration are possible “deeper” FTAs with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia that will upgrade existing accords, the EC said. It will start negotiations with Morocco soon. There are ongoing negotiations with Canada; Singapore, the EU's biggest trading partner in the ASEAN group; Malaysia and Vietnam; the Eastern Neighborhood (Georgia, Armenia and Moldova); India; Mercosur (South America's key trading bloc); the Gulf Cooperation Council; and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. FTAS that are finished but haven't entered into force yet are Peru and Colombia; Central America; and Ukraine. FTAs now in effect are South Korea, Mexico, South Africa, and Chile, the EC said. Aside from those “classic” deals, FTAs are also a core component of many Association Agreements and Customs Unions, it said. There are 28 trade agreements in force, excluding Syria, to which the trade provisions aren't applied, it said.