OREANDA-NEWS. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen will attend a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on 11 May.

The ministers will discuss the upcoming WTO ministerial conference and exchange views on the implementation of trade agreements. Additionally, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will present the Commission’s reflection paper on harnessing globalization by 2025, published on 10 May. 

“The debate on economic globalisation has been prominent both after the election of President Trump and during the French presidential election. The election result in France in particular is a signal of support for free trade based on openness instead of withdrawal,” Minister Mykkänen estimates.

“However, we must not think that the election results would resolve everything and that we can now resume what was normal before.  We must be capable of better meeting the challenges of globalisation, such as the question of social dumping related to labour rights, also through trade agreements. In Finland, this type of analysis has been intensified and it is important that we reach conclusions in the discussion also at EU level in a good time,” Mykkänen emphasises.

The Council of Ministers will be presented the Commission’s update of the EU-Myanmar/Burma Investment Protection Agreement and the new anti-dumping methodology. The Council will also discuss the Union’s trade relations with Chile, Australia and New Zealand as well as the temporary autonomous trade measures for Ukraine. Over lunch, the Ministers will discuss the state of play of free trade agreements with Japan, Mexico and Mercosur.