Vue lecture

No Tariff Exemption for European Wine and Spirits, at Least for Now

As the text of a trade agreement comes together, European Union negotiators haven’t persuaded the Americans to cut alcohol tariffs to zero.

© Stephane Mahe/Reuters

As the United States and the European Union move closer to a final trade agreement, it looks like alcohol will be subject to a 15 percent tariff.
  •  

What Lobsters and Chickens Reveal About Europe’s Trade Strategy

The European Union struck a trade deal that protected political priorities, like chicken and beef standards, while allowing headline-grabbing concessions. Consider lobsters.

© Tristan Spinski for The New York Times

Freshly caught lobsters last year in Stonington, Maine.
  •  

As Trump Administration Plans to Burn Contraceptives, Europeans Are Alarmed

The U.S. government intends to incinerate $9.7 million in already-purchased birth control in Belgium after U.S.A.I.D shut down. Destruction may have already started.

© Hilary Swift for The New York Times

The warehouse in Geel, Belgium, where millions of contraceptives bought by U.S.A.I.D. were stored when the U.S. government defunded the agency.
  •  

E.U. Did Not Retain Texts Sought by Journalists on Covid Vaccine Deal

The European Union acknowledged for the first time that a top official reviewed the messages, but said it had no duty to keep them, despite intense interest.

© Pool photo by Toby Melville

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, London, in March.
  •