The EU Trade Policy in a Time of Changes

Description

The EU's Common Trade Policy is an inseparable element of the process of European integration in both economic and political terms. Many aspects explain this centrality: it is one of the EU's few exclusive competences; the success of the Single Market and its potential both to attract trade partners and to generate surpluses and income that can be converted into FDI in third countries; and, of course, the absence of a common foreign policy. These are just some of the factors. The EU has used its CTP as an policy instrument to establish itself as an actor on the international stage and be recognised as such. Proof of this are numerous: the EU has been a full member of the World Trade Organisation since 1 January 1995, for example. Moreover, the EU has been combining this multilateral approach to trade with a more and more dense of bilateral trade agreements (Korea, Chile, Pakistan, the Philippines, to mention just a few). This subject seeks to teach second-cycle students about all these debates.