EU trade policy in the twenty-first century: change, continuity and challenges

Abstract

This is the introduction to a special collection of contributions that analyse key features of the European Union's (EU) trade policy in the twenty-first century, notably its politicization. As such, it examines the degree to which EU trade policy and its environment have changed over the last 20 years. More specifically, it begins with a brief review of the main changes to the structure of international trade and the resulting impacts on trade agreements. Second, it describes the institutional changes (notably the Lisbon Treaty) that have affected the EU's trade policy-making. Third, it discusses how the abovementioned changes have affected the EU's trade policy. Finally, it summarizes the special collection's key contributions to our improved understanding of EU trade policy in the twenty-first century as well as pinpoints new issues that scholars of EU trade policy should pay close attention to in their future research agendas.

International Trade in the Age of Turbulent Uncertainty, Globalization, Regionalization and Pandemic

“…The trade warfare between the USA and China and the tough stance of the USA regarding confidence to the WTO come at a time when the structure of world trade has changed (Pangestu, 2019). International trade has experienced three major structural changes since the 1990s (Leblond & Viju-Miljusevic, 2019): the first change is the outstripping growth in trade in services; the second is that in the context of the intensification of the international process of labor division, intermediate goods (semifinished products), rather than finished goods, are becoming more and more traded. Finally, with the digitization of the economy, goods and services are increasingly being sold in a digital rather than physical form.…”

Behind the screen: Understanding national support for a foreign investment screening mechanism in the European Union

“…But this has also been accompanied by an increasingly popular backlash against globalization and calls for economic nationalism and industrial policy (Dür et al, 2020). In the EU, the past decade has been characterized by a growing politicization of trade policy (Leblond & Viju-Miljusevic, 2019;Meunier & Czesana, 2019). Growing politicization, coupled with the blurring of economy and security, has led to the "securitization" (Roberts et al, 2019) and "geopoliticization" (Meunier & Nicolaidis, 2019) of trade and investment policy in many regions, especially in the EU.…”

The “Isms” of Regional Integration: What Do Underlying Interstate Preferences Hold for the ECOWAS Union?

“…This is related to the claim that free trade has transformed, and will continue to transform, the world for the better (Boussebaa 2019). The EU has become one of the most important advocates of a deep trade agenda at the multilateral and regional levels (Leblond and Viju‐Miljusevic 2019). Imperial revivalism goes hand‐in‐hand with nations pursuit of free trade with “emerging markets,” in an effort—aimed at maintaining access to those markets and ensuring the country's various monopolies, much like in the days of the Empire—to continue to dominate the world economy (Boussebaa 2019).…”