‘Global Europe’ during the Crisis: Reciprocity and the Political Limits to Liberalisation

Abstract

Earlier in the book, I provided a glimpse into the EU’s trade policy after the start of the Financial Crisis by focusing on the signature and ratification of the first ‘Global Europe’ FTA, signed with South Korea in 2010. The aim in this chapter is to provide more detailed analysis of how the ‘Global Europe’ offensive trade agenda of free trade negotiations has developed in what many consider the most significant economic downturn since the Great Depression. In the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis and given the unfolding Eurozone Crisis, the greatest perceived threat in the eyes of EU trade policymakers has been the potential for protectionist tendencies to develop, as these threaten not only the EU’s offensive trade agenda but also the liberalism of its import policies. This has been rendered all the more significant by the rise of the EP as an actor in the EU trade policymaking machinery as, in the eyes of some, it might contribute to politicising a previously ‘insulated’ EU policymaking arena (for example, Woolcock 2008: 5).KeywordsTrade PolicyTrade StrategyTrade LiberalisationOpen TradeWorld AffairThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.