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EU Development Bank Offers “Climate Finance” to Africa
December 12, 2018
The European Investment Bank announced in November a EUR 200 million loan to the African Export-Import Bank, at least 25% of which would be allocated toward “climate action,” mainly renewable energy projects, that advance the goals of the UN’s 2015 Paris climate deal and “sustainable development” agenda.
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EIB Launches Global “Green” Investment Program for Cities
December 05, 2018
The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently announced a partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to help ramp up investments supporting “green projects and programmes” in cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to advance the UN’s Paris climate agreement.
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Economists: UK Should Leave EU on WTO Terms
December 03, 2018
A British group called Economists for Free Trade recently published a paper arguing that Britain’s exit from the EU without an EU-UK trade deal but relying on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules would be highly advantageous to the UK and would permit the country to immediately benefit from Brexit.
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UK Documents Outline Plans in Case of “No Deal” Brexit
September 05, 2018
The British government recently released a set of documents outlining how it plans to respond to a scenario in which UK officials are unable to strike a deal with the EU on a post-Brexit relationship by the time of the country’s withdrawal from the bloc in 2019, as talks over future trade and regulatory relations between the jurisdictions remain stalled.
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UK Strikes Post-Brexit Trade Deals in Southern Africa
August 31, 2018
The Express reports that the UK government has struck a deal with Mozambique and the five members of the Southern African Customs Union to roll over their free-trade arrangements with the EU so they apply to trade with Britain after its withdrawal from the supranational bloc.
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UK Leader Mulls Extension of EU Market Membership
August 30, 2018
Bloomberg reports that, under pressure from EU officials to find a solution to the issue of a potential “hard border” in Ireland after Brexit, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is crafting a plan to retain the EU’s internal market regulations beyond the already-agreed post-Brexit transition period set to end in 2020.
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Howe: “No-Deal” Brexit Presents Opportunities for Consumers
August 21, 2018
British lawyer Martin Howe QC examines why EU rules, including the bloc’s common external tariff, have inflated UK food, clothing, and other prices and asserts that leaving the EU customs union presents the opportunity for the UK to lower tariffs and decrease prices for the country’s consumers.
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EU Officials Plan for Non-binding Brexit Political Declaration
August 06, 2018
The Guardian reports that EU officials are targeting a UK-EU political declaration on a post-Brexit trade and security framework that would not be legally binding and would be between 5 and 30 pages long, frustrating UK plans for a comprehensive, binding deal on its future relationship with the bloc.
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Italian Official: EU Fails to Negotiate Brexit in “Good Faith”
August 06, 2018
Politico reports that Italian Interior Minister and head of the Northern League political party Matteo Salvini has asserted the EU institutions are not negotiating the terms of Brexit with the UK in “good faith” and said he hopes Britain succeeds outside the EU as an example to other euroskeptics.
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Shankar Critiques EU Rigidity on UK Trade Proposals
August 06, 2018
Aarti Shankar of the think tank Open Europe argues that the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is understating the flexibility of EU trade policy by questioning the feasibility of a “goods only” common rulebook proposed by the UK after Brexit, arguing that the EU has such arrangements with countries ranging from Ukraine to Switzerland.