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Negotiations on EU-US Critical Minerals Agreement
The EU Council published on 20 July 2023 a press release where it annouces that: The Council adopted a decision authorising the Commission to: a) open negotiations, on behalf of the EU, with the United States on a Critical Minerals Agreement (CMA); b) release the related negotiating directives. The goals are to strengthen critical minerals supply chains and mitigate some of the negative repercussions of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on EU industry. The next steps will be: The EU Council has to provide for a mandate to Commission; the Commission will be able to engage in formal negotiations with the US with a view to concluding the agreement…
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USA, trade policy and deforestation
On 31 May 2023 has been published the report to the President “Reducing international deforestation through US government international programming, assistance, finance, investment, trade and trade promotion”in response to E.O 14072 (Stopping International Deforestation). This document provides a picture of the US policies to block the deforestation/forest degradation. The preferential trade agreements (free trade agreement) play a key role in the enforcement of the commitment against the illegal deforestantion. Indeed, in the “section 2: trade agreements” “(ii) Address deforestation and land conversion risk in new relevant trade agreements and seek to address such risks, where possible, in the implementation of existing trade agreements” this report states that “…The U.S. has…