Handbook on the EU and international trade

Summary:

The legal, political and economic rationales that underpin trade policy are reflected in the establishment and implementation of EU trade relations with the rest of the world. This comprehensive handbook provides readers with a multidisciplinary overview of the major perspectives, actors and challenges in contemporary EU trade relations.

Changes in institutional dynamics, Brexit, the politicisation of trade, competing foreign policy agendas, and adaptation to trade patterns of value chains and the digital and knowledge economy are reshaping the EU trade policy. The authors tackle how these challenges frame the aims, processes and effectiveness of trade policy-making in the context of EU trade relations with developed, developing and emerging states in the global economy.

Contents:

1. The establishment and development of the European Union and its trade policy | Nicholas Perdikis and Laurie Perdikis
2. EU international relations law: the power to conclude international trade agreements | Clair Gammage
3. EU trade policy from a political perspective | María García
4. The European Commission’s role in trade policy | Lars Nilsson
5. The Council: between European legislator and national executive | Johan Adriaensen
6. The European Parliament | Guri Rosén
7. EU trade policy and civil society | Matthew Eagleton-Pierce
8. Business-government relations in EU trade politics | Jappe Eckhardt
9. Trade policy and foreign policy in the European Union | Michael Smith
10. The EU’s foreign trade policy towards its eastern frontier: assessing its triangular trade relationship with Ukraine and Russia in the context of the Ukraine Crisis | Nicholas Ross Smith
11. The EU and Africa: trade, development and the politics of inter-regionalism | Tony Heron and Peg Murray-Evans
12. The promotion of social trade by the European Union in its external trade relations | Lore Van den Putte and Samantha Velluti
13. The role of ideas in legitimating EU trade policy: from the Single Market Programme to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership | Ferdi De Ville and Gabriel Siles-Brügge
14. Re-shaping global borders: EU trade policy and the interregional preference | Philippe De Lombaerde, Ludger Kühnhardt and Mario Filadoro
15. The European Union and fair trade: hands off? | Deborah Martens and Jan Orbie
16. European Union trade agreements and global value chains | Adrian Smith
17. Trade, competitiveness and the China factor | Min Shu
18. EU and developing Asia trade dispute settlement: assertive legalism for political autonomy | Leïla Choukroune
19. Building a special place in Europe-Asia trade: EU-Singapore commercial relations | William A. Kerr
20. Singapore issues | William A. Kerr
21. The Digital Single Market: move from traditional to digital? | Sangeeta Khorana and W. Gregory Voss