Peter Van den Bossche delivers Online Lecture at International Virtual Conference

In his presentation on EU Trade Legislation and Practices: Are They Restricting Free Market Opportunities?, Peter Van den Bossche, Director of Studies and Professor of International Economic Law at the World Trade Institute, President of the Society of International Economic Law, and former Member and Chair of the WTO Appellate Body (2009-2019), discussed the importance of the EU in global trade and the importance and composition of trade between the EU and Malaysia.

He examined the main objectives of the EU trade policy, as outlined in the 2015 European Commission Communication on Trade for All, and recent developments regarding these objectives. Most notably the European Commission mentions in the list of main trade policy objectives first the promotion of universal values regarding environmental, social and labour protection and fundamental rights.

Van den Bossche next explored the non-preferential opportunities for trade with the EU from which all WTO Members, including Malaysia, under WTO law, and the preferential opportunities for trade with the EU under the EU GSP or EU FTAs, none of which are available to Malaysia.

Finally, Van den Bossche discussed the different forms of current EU barriers to trade and observed that while some of these barriers are consistent with the EU’s international obligations, others are of doubtful legality.

The programme of the Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar 2021 is linked below.