11 - The EU as a Global Trade Power

Summary

This chapter focuses on the development, practice and contestation of the European Communities (EC)/European Union (EU) as a global power in the light of ever-more advancing globalisation and European integration. It focuses particularly on the EU’s Common Commercial Policy (CCP) or EU trade policy in the context of a larger set of external actions undertaken by the EU. Thus, this chapter concerns the development of the EC/EU as a global power in terms of its external actions, especially in trade. As this chapter will show, it is especially thanks to the EC/EU’s so-called ‘low’ level of external action, especially its trade policy, that the EC/EU developed as a global power long before the EU contributed to global governance through the so-called ‘high’ foreign policy. At the same time, the ability to perform as a global power in trade – to harness the opportunities of globalisation, but also to answer the challenges of globalisation – has become increasingly dependent on four key dimensions: the EU’s actorness, the EU’s effectiveness, the EU’s coherence and the EU’s democratic legitimacy.