On Monday 30 July, the European Commission published the progress reports on the first rounds of talks towards free-trade agreements between the EU and Australia on one hand, and the EU and New Zealand, as well as the EU's textual proposals covering 12 areas of talks with Australia and 11 with New Zealand.
These first negotiating sessions at technical level allowed the negotiation groups to be set in place and the work to be organised, and launched the first substantive discussions on almost...