Exporting Europe’s trade policy

Abstract: There are three well-known observations about the current regional trade policy of Europe. The first one is the central role played by the European Union in the worldwide spreading of regional agreements. The second is the new policy of signing bilateral deep regional trade agreements. The third is the growing demand for harmonisation of international and domestic trade regulations. We show that the combination of these three trends results in Europe increasingly weighing on the policy decisions of its trade partners, in particular with regard to their trade policies. The European hegemonic influence – which can be viewed as Europe 'exporting' its policy models – is extending to all partners in preferential trade agreements, not only the accession candidates. It has two main broad manifestations: a prescriptive approach to push bilateral partners into regional agreements among themselves; and a tendency to diffuse European rules in its bilateral agreements with its partners. We review the various provisions of the agreements through which this influence operates. Although this policy can be viewed as desirable in some instances, it also generates actual and potential future costs for developing countries, as well as posing non-trivial dangers to the process of multilateral liberalisation and to the building of appropriate policies for the partner countries.