Mixed competences and ‘second generation’ trade agreements: a consideration of EU disintegration

ABSTRACT This paper considers recent developments in EU trade policy in the context of the theoretical framework of ‘disintegration’. The events surrounding the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, as well as the CJEU’s opinion on the EU-Singapore free trade agreement, underscore the limits to centralized decision-making in trade policy for newer ‘second generation’ trade agreements. The argument is that recent political developments with EU trade agreements have complicated the possibility for further exclusive competence at the supranational level, and in doing so have indirectly illustrated some potential limits to further economic integration. This examination is helpful when considering if (or to what degree) the logic of European integration has been weakened in the aftermath of various crises, and whether the federal structure of EU governance is able to accommodate changes in the allocation of competences in trade policy.