ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the main problems and prospects of the external relations of the European Union (EU). The commercial policy of the EU has to do with its trade practices with non-member countries. A closed commercial policy would be one in which the EU tries to divert most of its trade activity inward, toward other members, and by implication away from non-members. It is quite possible for the EU to be inclusive and generous in terms of its trade agreements toward nonmembers, and at the same time to alter its actual trade behavior toward them very little. Trade agreements are negotiated and signed in order to affect trade patterns among countries. The international economic order depends on openness. One of the long-lasting debates about the EU concerns whether it should strive to be broad or deep. The acquis communautaire refers to everything that the EU has achieved since its early origins in the European Coal and Steel Community.
