Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner Head of Department Foreign Economic Policy BDI e.V. A list of trade agreements between the European Union and other countries of the world as well as brief explanations of these agreements can be found in EU trade agreements. Removing regulatory barriers to trade is another objective of free trade agreements. Of course, regulatory cooperation between states must not lead to lower standards, for example in consumer protection, nor limit the political room for manoeuvre of the EU and its Member States. On this page you will find information on Germany`s accession to the WTO. Germany has been a member of the WTO since 1 January 1995 and a member of GATT since 1 October 1951. It is a Member State of the European Union (more info). All EU Member States are members of the WTO, as is the EU (officially known as the European Communities at the WTO for legal reasons until 30 November 2009). Cross-border trade leverages technological leadership. This benefits both exporters and customers, as they can choose the right products for them from a wider variety. Describes the trade agreements in which this country is involved.
Provides resources for U.S. companies to obtain information on the use of these agreements. This certainly must not be the case. Countries opened their markets under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 1947) and later under the WTO (established in 1995). In addition, more than 300 trade agreements (trade agreements notified to the WTO that are still in force today) have committed to trade liberalization. In addition, there are many unilateral trade agreements in which industrialized and emerging countries grant preferential access to developing countries. However, free trade does not mean that trade is without rules. On the contrary, it means that countries commit to certain rules in trade agreements, such as the principle of non-discrimination. They also frequently sign rules on government procurement, competition, trade-related investment issues and trade facilitation. Modern trade agreements also include robust chapters on the sustainability of labour and environmental standards. Most trade agreements also provide for dispute settlement procedures. Last but not least, countries can also reintroduce barriers to trade – for example, if a product or service poses a risk to human, animal or plant health or poses a threat to national security.
An overview of existing free trade agreements concluded by the EU is available here. The TiSA (= Agreement on Trade in Services) is being developed as a plurilateral agreement on trade in services. Above all, it is a question of improving market access for external services and giving new impetus to the largely stalled negotiations on a multilateral trading system. The EU and the German government believe that the new rules to facilitate trade in services should be adopted at a later stage at WTO level. The EU negotiates TiSA with 23 WTO member states, which account for around 70% of global trade in services. Due to global technological advances, transportation costs are constantly falling. At the same time, however, tariffs and a large number of so-called non-tariff trade barriers continue to weigh heavily on world trade. Consumers pay the price in the form of higher prices and the unavailability of better products and services. Singapore: The EU and Singapore signed a free trade agreement and an investment protection agreement at the ASEM summit on 18-19 October 2018. The European Parliament approved both agreements in February 2019.
Germany warmly welcomes these agreements because, despite its small size, Singapore is one of Germany`s most important trading partners in the ASEAN region. The ratification of the free trade agreement was completed by a Council decision on 8 November, the agreement entered into force on 21 November 2019.The investment protection agreement has yet to be signed by all EU Member States. The Investment Protection Agreement sets high and clear investment protection standards that respect the state`s right to regulate and introduces a reformed dispute settlement procedure along the lines of CETA. More information on the two agreements is available on the European Commission`s website. Vietnam: On 30 June 2019, the EU and Vietnam signed a free trade agreement and an investment protection agreement in Hanoi. Germany is Vietnam`s largest trading partner in the EU and welcomes the signing of the agreement. The free trade agreement facilitates access for German products to the growing Vietnamese market. Like the agreement signed with Singapore, the investment protection agreement with Vietnam sets high and precise standards of investment protection and introduces a reformed dispute settlement procedure.
The European Parliament approved both agreements on 12 February 2020. The free trade agreement entered into force on 1 August 2020. The investment protection agreement must be ratified by all EU Member States before it enters into force. The EU is New Zealand`s second largest trading partner. In 2019, the volume of transactions amounted to more than 9 billion euros. Agricultural products account for the largest share of New Zealand`s exports to the EU, while the EU mainly exports finished and industrial products to New Zealand. In 2019, Germany`s trade surplus with New Zealand amounted to €2.7 billion and EU companies accounted for more than €10 billion of foreign direct investment in New Zealand. The most important officials of the Embassy are listed in the list of the most important officials of the Ministry. The EU`s first free trade agreements with Latin American countries were the Global Agreement with Mexico in 2000 and the Association Agreement with Chile in 2005. The Association Agreement and the Comprehensive Agreement go far beyond the framework of a pure free trade agreement and also provide a broad contractual basis for political dialogue, economic relations and economic cooperation. On 21 April 2018, the EU and Mexico reached an agreement in principle on the key elements of a trade component of a modernised global agreement between the EU and Mexico.
Among the details is the future duty-free regime for 99% of all goods traded between the EU and Mexico. Transitional periods and quotas are initially provided for certain agricultural products. A total of 340 foods from the EU are protected by geographical designations of origin. Investor-state disputes must be resolved by a publicly legitimized investment court. The new agreement is intended to cover not only market access, but also issues such as sustainability, regulatory cooperation and the fight against corruption. Once the final technical details have been clarified, the modernised agreement must be signed, approved by the Council and the European Parliament and ratified by the Member States. Since November 2017, the EU has also been negotiating with Chile to modernise the existing Association Agreement. The aim is to include provisions on the fight against corruption, support for SMEs and sustainable development (social and environmental standards). The trade part of the EU Association Agreement with Central America entered into force provisionally at the end of 2013. The EU-Central America Association Agreement is the first time that the EU has concluded such an agreement with an entire region.
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama are all parties to the agreement. The EU`s plurilateral agreement with Colombia and Peru entered into force provisionally in 2013. Ecuador acceded to the agreement in January 2017. On 28 June 2019, after almost 20 years, the European Commission successfully concluded negotiations with the Mercosur countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, on the free trade part of the Association Agreement. Negotiations have been suspended since 1999. The content of trade agreements has evolved over time: the free trade agreements negotiated by the European Union (EU) with Mexico and Chile in the late 1990s focused mainly on tariff reductions. Recent trade agreements, such as those between the EU and South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada and Japan, also cover the so-called WTO+ areas. These are issues that have not yet been discussed at multilateral level or have only been discussed to a limited extent, including competition rules, intellectual property protection, public procurement and investment. In 2018, bilateral trade in goods and services totalled nearly $252 billion, with U.S.
exports of $92.4 billion and imports of $159.8 billion. The total trade deficit of $67.4 billion in 2018 was attributable to goods. Bilateral trade in services ($68 billion in 2018) is roughly balanced with a U.S. surplus of $1 billion (up from a deficit of $3 billion in 2017). The top categories of U.S. merchandise exports to Germany in 2018 were aircraft ($8.9 billion), vehicles ($7.2 billion), machinery ($6.9 billion), optical and medical instruments ($6.7 billion) and electrical machinery ($5.5 billion). The main categories of German exports to the United States in 2018 were machinery ($27.2 billion), vehicles ($25.4 billion), pharmaceuticals ($15.3 billion), optical and medical instruments ($10.6 billion) and electrical machinery ($8.8 billion). .