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The European Union will eliminate most of the remaining customs charges on imports from 78 former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific in an effort to fuel the commodity-dependent economies.

The EU’s trade arrangements with the group of developing countries expire on Jan. 1. Today’s decision to increase access to the European market, backed by ministers meeting in Brussels, also ends limits on the volume of exports to the 27-nation bloc. […]

EU imports of commodities from 49 of the world’s poorest countries, excluding sugar, bananas and rice, have been tariff- free and unlimited in volume since 2001. That agreement excluded 37 ACP countries.
(source)

The Spanish Parliament has passed a law aimed at controlling property speculators whom the government blames for spiralling house prices.

Official documents will list everybody who has owned any piece of land in the five years before its development.[…]The government hopes that reducing the number of speculators and the degree of corruption will bring down prices. […]

The new law also reserves 30% of future property development for social housing and allows for planning decisions taken over the past two years to be reviewed under certain circumstances.
It will come into force on 1 July. (Source: BBC)

The European Union has halved its import duty on nonalloyed raw aluminium to 3% from 6% in a bid to boost deliveries from Russia.

The EU said in an official statement that the decision was reached on Monday.
It said the partial suspension of the tariff would come into force “three days following its publication in the EU Official Journal, in the coming days.” The duty “will be reviewed in three years in order to take into account possible future changes in the aluminium market situation,” the statement said.
(source)

A series of free trade talks between South Korea and the European Union are taking place in Seoul from 7 to 11 May.

[…]EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and South Korean trade minister Kim Hyun-Chong both called for rapid progress in free trade negotiations. Officials hope to conclude negotiations within a year. […]The European Union is South Korea’s biggest investor, injecting nearly $5bn into the country last year, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
(source: BBC)

A EU-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit will beginon Tuesday May 8, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The summit could lead to a free trade deal between EU and the GCC - which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Omand and Qatar.

The two blocs had started to negotiate a free trade agreement in 2002, however they failed to agree on a commons set of rules regarding investments and market access.

Spain’s economy has been growing strongly in recent years, driven mainly by expansion in the construction industry. […] However, in recent months cracks have started to appear and mortgage demand has slowed as homeownership levels topped 85%. […]

Analysts said that while the current fears of a crash may be over amplified, the Spanish property boom that had provided strong returns for the past eight years was probably over. […]

The worry is that should the suspected property bubble burst, and some analysts estimate that house prices are overvalued by 30%, then many other industries such as banking and retail would also suffer.
(source)

The European Commission has today welcomed the formal adoption by European Member States of negotiating mandates for a new generation of Free Trade Agreements with India, South Korea and ASEAN.

New independent research released by the European Commission today suggests that the agreements could add more than 40 billion euros to EU exports annually and provide wide new trade opportunities for all sides.

The European Commission, which will negotiate on behalf of EU Member states, expects to launch negotiations in the months to come.
(source: europa.eu)

Brussels has adopted a new policy on market access, focusing on obstacles to trade in markets like China and India. […]

Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said trade barriers cost European firms 20bn euros a year in China alone.

Announcing changes to its 11-year old strategy on market access, Brussels said it would focus on key issues such as protecting intellectual property rights and ensuring stricter enforcement of global and bilateral trade rules.
Central to the strategy will be tackling the growing number of non-tariff barriers discriminating against foreign firms.
These include the application of technical standards that increase import costs and red tape such as over zealous customs procedures. (source: BBC)

Weeks after the United States lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organisation, Mandelson warned that the EU could follow in Washington’s footsteps with its own case at the global trade referee.

“I do not rule out initiating or joining action at the WTO if in our view China is failing to take its responsibilities seriously. […] China has agreed to protect (intellectual property rights). It did so when it joined the WTO and despite considerable efforts by the Chinese government, IPR protection in China remains patchy and uneven,” he told journalists in Brussels.

(Full story)

EU’s trade authority dropped a threat to impose tariffs on imports from the US, China, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine of a chemical used in paints, the pentaerythritol.

The EU closed a probe into whether the five countries’ pentaerythritol exporters sold in Europe below domestic prices or below the production cost.[…]
EU’s trade authority said U.S. and Turkish exporters didn’t depress prices and dumping by Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian companies doesn’t justify punitive duties sought by EU producers to stem sales and profit declines. (source)