European shares treaded water as investors awaited the signing of an initial trade truce to end a prolonged U.S.-China tariff dispute, with attention also turning to the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season. The Phase 1 Sino-U.S. trade deal, due to be signed in Washington soon, marks the first step in winding down the prolonged and damaging trade war. In further signs of goodwill, ...

The EU’s trade commissioner has suggested there could be a last-minute trade-off with Brussels offering the city of London access to European markets in return for European fleets retaining their fishing rights in British waters. The UK’s financial services sector will lose its automatic right to serve Europe-based clients at the end of the transition period and the EU will need to ...

Mining activity in the European Union has gone from being a very visible driver of European economic growth to an activity that is more out of sight and out of mind. But with raw material access coming into question, mining in Europe may be coming back into the spotlight. Today, the EU imports most of the materials it uses rather than ...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is warning that American businesses and consumers are bearing the brunt of the trade war and is calling on the administration to change course. According to sources, more than half of U.S. states are facing retaliatory tariffs on at least 25% of their exports to the European Union and China. The drums of war beating in Washington sound a lot ...

United States president Donald Trump’s trade war with the European Union could be a boon for California vintners, which make about 95% of US wine. Americans will opt for a cheaper bottle of domestic vino over a foreign variety. A trade war isn’t particularly great news for wine lovers in the US, either. For the past three decades, the US ...

White House advisor Peter Navarro said the “phase one” trade deal between the U.S. and China is “in the bank.” Navarro, a longtime China trade hawk, refrained from commenting on rumors that the deal could be signed by U.S. and Chinese officials as early as next week, saying he would rather defer to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on specific timing. ...

The European Union’s new trade commissioner, Irishman Phil Hogan, seeks a reset of EU/US trade relations on a number of contentious issues when he meets his U.S. counterpart for the first time next month. The Trump administration imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum in mid-2018. It has done the same to $7.5 billion worth of EU products over a dispute ...

EU-China relations stand at a new historical starting point. China senses an opportunity as the EU could be the next target of a United States effort to replace multilateral trade rules with managed trade. China may expect some wins in Europe in 2020 in the area of 5G infrastructure. Huawei has signed 20 commercial contracts with European operators. Before the ...

Boris Johnson is preparing to set up a dedicated new Brexit team by the end of next month as he seeks to take control of talks on Britain’s future relationship with the European Union. The unit – reportedly named ‘Taskforce Europe’ – will replace the Department for Exiting the European Union when it shuts down on 31 January, the date on ...

European policy makers hope that stronger growth will materialize as global headwinds recede. But a look at what awaits the four largest European economies next year shows that governments everywhere are hanging at the mercy of a continuous slowdown, as the persistent recession of the manufacturing sector begins to spill over into the rest of the economy. Many countries also suffer from self-inflicted harm ...