ABSTRACT
The last decade has seen major shifts in the global economic context which have inevitably impacted on the commercial relations between the key actors in the global economy. This chapter explores how these shifts have impacted on one of the key means by which the European Union (EU) manages its economic relations with its partner regions: external trade policy. From a situation in the early years of this millennium where the EU put a clear focus on multilateral liberalization through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and provided market access to a broad range of developing countries through its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). The chapter argues that this strategic shift is a reaction to geoeconomic changes, which have made multilateral agreements more difficult and bilateral agreements more politically seductive. It maps the evolution of EU trade policy over the last decade, starting at the launch of the last multilateral negotiating round—the Doha Development Agenda (DDA)—to the end of 2015.
