ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the European Union's (EU) attempts to craft a new trade policy process and confront persistent questions of policymaking authority and access to the policy process. It addresses changing authority and changing access in turn, before drawing some conclusions for current and future trade policy scholars. The EU has struggled with questions of authority in many of these areas. In trade, as in any other area, the EU's convoluted policymaking process is polyvalent, meaning that its form differs depending on the specific content of the policy in question. The central EU institutions have long held competence to negotiate agreements covering trade in goods. The European Economic Community originated as a customs union sharing a common external tariff, meaning that central coordination of policies governing trade in goods was necessary from early in the EU's history. A lack of public support for the EU latest flagship agreements within some Member States poses a significant challenge for negotiators going forward.
