DÜNYA İLİŞKİLERİNDE AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ

The EU’s common commercial policy is currently facing bigger challenges than it has ever encountered since the launch of the original customs union more than sixty years ago.

These challenges include the United Kingdom’s forthcoming leave and the impact of that exit for the remaining member states.

An important policy recommendation based on the reasoning in the chapter is that the EU should vigorously defend the multilateral trading system.

In other words, it should adopt the theme of “Make the WTO Great Again” while simultaneously continuing to conclude and implement ambitious bilateral and regional trade and economic partnership agreements with key partners.

Foreign trade in goods and services is one of the few policy areas within the EU that is regulated by “exclusive competence” at the supranational level.

A common commercial policy towards third countries (in the form of a customs union) was included in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (EEC).

Intra-regional foreign trade between “the original six” (West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) amounted to about 25 per cent of their total foreign trade turnover in the mid-1950s.

The European Community was enlarged from six member states in 1972 to 15 in 1995, all of which became part of the single internal market.

The standardization of rules for manufacturing and service production has become an increasingly important component in new versions of free trade agreements.

Recent studies show that about two-thirds of EU exports to partner countries make use of free trade agreements, while the corresponding figure for partner countries’ exports to the EU is as high as 90 percent.

Intra-regional foreign trade between “the original six” amounted to about 25 percent of their total foreign trade turnover in the mid-1950s. The original six were West Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Foreign trade in goods and services is one of the few policy areas within the EU that is regulated by “exclusive competence” at the supranational level.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had also created an opportunity for two or more individual countries to speed up tariff elimination by reducing tariff rates among themselves as long as third countries were not put at a disadvantage.

In advanced economies, the proportion of the economically active population involved in services is
usually around 75–80 percent.

The four EFTA members  were Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland which together account for 11 percent of the EU’s external foreign trade in goods.

In February 2018, US President Donald Trump launched “a new era in American trade policy” (USTR 2018). The novel feature of this policy was the realization of substantial tariff increases. At the same time, the president launched an aggressive nationalist agenda in many other areas directed at long-term allied trade partners, including its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) neighbours and the EU, as well as China and the rest of the world.

The EU28 is the world’s largest economic-political bloc. Its total foreign trade in goods represents one-third of world trade. If we exclude intra-EU trade, the EU’s external
foreign trade still accounts for around 15 percent of world trade, which puts the EU ahead of both China and the US.

The EU’s most important relationships (in terms of value) are with “Greater China” (i.e., People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao) and the US, with about 19 and 17 percent, respectively, of the union’s extraregional foreign trade.

In line with the “Global Europe” strategy, negotiations were launched for an ambitious interregional agreement with ASEAN in 2007. This is Asia’s largest regional trading bloc with 10 member countries and 650 million inhabitants.

Foreign trade has undergone profound changes in content, geographical orientation and mode of operation in recent decades, including changes resulting from the emergence and proliferation of global and regional value chains. In addition, free trade agreements (FTAs) have become more ambitious and wider in scope, and now cover many new issues. At the same time, they have become more profound in terms of deeper commitments. However, the essential role of these agreements still relates to the management and regulation of economic transactions between states.