The incidental fortress: the single European market and world trade

Article abstract:

The European Union's role in international trade contains two significant contradictions: first, although its trade policy, with some notable exceptions, is generally fairly liberal, it has been the respondent in a number of high-profile trade disputes; second, although a champion of multilateralism, the EU has had problems complying with World Trade Organization (WTO) judgments. The author argues that these contradictions in the EU's trading persona are due to the internal dynamics of European policy-making, which create 'regulatory peaks' where the member governments' rules diverge, and render the resulting rules difficult to alter.

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