Meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council on Trade, 25 November 2022

World Trade Organization reform and preparations for the 13th WTO Ministerial

The discussions at the FAC (Trade) Council are expected to focus on the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and preparations for the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference.

Despite the challenging situation created by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the WTO MC12 (Geneva, 12 to 17 June 2022) was considered one of the most successful WTO Ministerial Conferences. The focus is now on how to prepare for MC13 and how to use the positive post-MC 12 atmosphere to advance the negotiations.

• Foreign Affairs Council (Trade), 12-15 June 2022
• WTO

EU-US trade relations

Ministers will hold a discussion on EU-US trade relations.

Last year, the EU and the US took important steps to reinvigorate their partnership by putting aside some high profile disputes and by establishing the Trade and Technology Council (which has in the meantime become the cornerstone of a positive transatlantic trade agenda). However, to maintain the positive momentum in bilateral trade relations, it is important to continue working on the final settling of disputes and to prevent the emergence of new obstacles to bilateral trade. In this context, the EU is very concerned about the discriminatory elements of the US Inflation Reduction Act and expects that the ongoing search for credible solutions will yield results rapidly.

• EU-US summit, Brussels, 15 June 2021
• TTC

Trade support to Ukraine

The Council will hold a policy debate on Trade support to Ukraine.

The war is having a profound negative impact on the ability of Ukraine to trade due to the destruction of production capacity and the unavailability of transport means. The main trade-related steps taken to Ukraine’s recovery efforts were the suspension, for one year, of import duties on all Ukrainian exports to the EU and all EU anti-dumping and safeguard measures in place on Ukrainian steel exports from 4 June 2022 until 5 June 2023 (i.e., the so-called autonomous trade measures-ATMs). Ministers are expected to focus their discussion on how to continue supporting Ukraine.

• Impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the markets: EU response (background information)
• Support to Ukraine

Bilateral trade relations

Over a working lunch, the Council will exchange views on bilateral trade relations, including ongoing negotiations.

Meeting information

• Meeting n°3912
• Brussels
• 25 November 2022

Preparatory documents

• Provisional agenda