A Stronger Europe in the World: Major Challenges for EU Trade Policy. College of Europe EU Diplomacy Paper 02/2020

Weyand, Sabine (2020) A Stronger Europe in the World: Major Challenges for EU Trade Policy. College of Europe EU Diplomacy Paper 02/2020. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

On 29 January 2020, Dr. Sabine Weyand, Director-General for Trade at the European Commission, gave a lecture on “‘A stronger Europe in the world’: Major challenges for EU trade policy” at the College of Europe in Bruges. She started out with the challenges posed by the rise of populism and the shift towards more power-based relations and protectionism, arguing that trade is increasingly seen as a proxy through which the battle for political supremacy is fought. Dr. Weyand then explained the trade priorities of the new European Commission: reforming the World Trade Organisation for the benefit of a predictable, rules-based multilateral system; managing the bilateral relations with major powers including the United States, China and the United Kingdom; contributing as a ‘geopolitical Commission’ to other policy fields and in particular the European Green Deal; and levelling the playing field by promoting EU standards

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