SMITH, Michael Loughborough University - Department of Politics, History and International Relations, UK

THE EUROPEAN UNION AS A GLOBAL TRADE ACTOR: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

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This article reviews the challenges and opportunities confronting the European Union in its trade and broader commercial policies, in what is a period of transition. The article begins by evaluating the foundations of the EU’s ‘actorness’ in trade policy, and in particular by identifying three underlying logics of EU policy development: the ‘internal’ logic, the ‘external’ logic and the ‘identity’ logic. The interaction between these logics is seen as driving the ways in which the EU enters into global trade relationships, and as accounting for tensions and contradictions in a number of areas. Subsequent sections of the article deal with the images presented by the EU in trade policy, with the EU’s changing position in world trade, with the current trade agenda and the new agenda of broader commercial policy. The article finishes with a review of potential future issues in EU trade and commercial policies, and with a reassessment of the ‘three logics’ and their interaction.

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European Union , Trade policy , Global Trade

dokuz eylul university the journal of graduate school of social sciences

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