EU

Donald Trump

Trump used a major speech on Thursday to lay out an “America first” foreign policy that would see Nato allies contribute more to their own defence. Castigating the “reckless and rudderless” policies of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that he said “blazed a path of destruction” in the world, Mr Trump said he would return the US to a more self-interested approach.

After a good fifty years of the project creating a transatlantic free trade area, (especially challenged by General de Gaulle ) this idea was revived in 2013. Started last summer the trade negotiation is already well advanced, since both parties have already conducted three bilateral meetings to sweep the major issues at stake. 28 Member States were briefed Monday, January 20 the forthcoming launch of a public consultation on the transatlantic partnership.

The European Union’s position is absolutely clear: israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are “illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible”. Yet this report shows how european policy helps sustain the settlements. It reveals that the eu imports approximately fifteen times more from the illegal settlements than from the Palestinians themselves.

The new scheme of the EU will focus on a smaller number of beneficiaries (89 countries) in the form of reduced tariff rates or zero. At the same time, countries that effectively ensure compliance with human rights, labor rights conventions as well as environmental and good governance will benefit from increased support.