Cecilia Malmström

Modernizing the existing Customs Union with its largest market, the European Union, is of great importance to Turkey, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said, two days ahead of his visit to Brussels to discuss the issue with his European counterparts. 

The European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said she expected a suspension of talks between the US and the EU on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Friday, following the election of Donald Trump as US President. “Now there is a newly elected President. We do not know what exactly will happen.

Turkey has agreed to implement a wide-ranging trade agreement with Britain once it leaves the European Union, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told a parliamentary commission in Ankara on Nov. 10.

French-speakers in southern Belgium, accounting for less than 1 percent of the 508 million EU consumers likely to be affected by CETA, raised objections that held up the deal until a breakthrough on Oct. 27 that was confirmed by regional parliamentary votes a day later. "All's well that end's well," said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Six EU commissioners will visit Turkey in March 2016 for a high-level economic platform meeting, the Turkish EU Minister Volkan Bozk?r has said, while also noting that Turkish and EU officials would gather in January within the framework of a high-level energy dialogue mechanism.

The EU on Aug. 4 announced a free trade deal ?in principle? with Vietnam aimed at removing nearly all tariffs on goods traded between the two countries.

?We have a deal,? EU Trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem announced as her office said it was ?an agreement in principle? in two and a half years of ?intense? negotiations for a free trade agreement.

The next round of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will be launched Monday.

Earlier in July, EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström stated that the final parameters of the agreement will most probably be postponed for the upcoming year.

The European Union and Turkey have agreed to upgrade their decades-old Customs Union, bringing the economies of the two closer together even as Turkey's bid to become an EU member remains in deep freeze. 

The tenth consecutive round of negotiations between the EU and the US regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is set to start Monday in New York.

Talks continue as the proposal for an economic agreement was made more than two years ago. The idea behind it was for the biggest trade zone in the world to be created.

Bulgarian MEP Momchil Nekov (S&D) presented the opportunities and challenges facing EU agriculture in the framework of the TTIP negotiations at a conference, which was held in the House of Europe in Sofia on Friday.