The Common Common Commercial Policy of the European Union and New Generation of Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

The article analyzes the development of a Common EU trade policy over the past decades. Very dynamic changes in international trade over recent years have raised new questions about the way in which the EU regulates its trade and its economic relations with the world. Bearing in mind that there has been a crisis and a stalemate in the development of economic multilateralism within the World Trade Organization, we witnessed during the last decade the emergence of a new wave of negotiations and the conclusion of a large number of free trade agreements at the regional or intercontinental level, especially "mega-regional agreements". Overall, the evolution of EU trade relations is a reflection of widespread trends in international economic relations. It can be noted that there is an intensification and expansion of free trade agreements of a different type, which the EU now concludes, not only with countries in surrounding regions as it once was the case (wider Europe, the Mediterranean), but also with number of countries from other continents. Special attention has been paid in the text to the EU-Canada Agreement (CETA) as well as to the future trade relations between the EU and the United Kingdom after the country's exit from the Union.