Recent Trends of Common Commercial Policy of the European Union: From Global-to-Regional (and Return?) in the Governance of International Economic Order

Abstract

International trade governance has traditionally aspired to the creation of a multilateral global trade system. However, also in reaction to the slow pace of the multilateral agenda, some players have started boosting bilateral/regional approaches to liberalization as alternative avenues for achieving economic gains from improved international trade liberalization. In this context, some features of the recently negotiated European Union’s comprehensive bilateral/regional free trade agreements (“FTAs”) deserve a particular analysis. Not only because their content reflects a new approach in European common commercial policy as compared to the past, but also because they raise some issues as regards their impact on European legal order and on the future of multilateral trade system in general. The paper tries to offer an overview of some significant features of the new generation EU-negotiated FTAs, looking at the new competences conferred upon the European Union by the Lisbon Treaty in the common commercial policy domain. It shall provide some insights on the effects of such agreements on European Union legal order, focusing on the possibility to invoke their direct applicability before European and member States courts, and draw some critical considerations on issues of European governance connected to their conclusion.