Reshaping the EU's FTA Policy in a Globalizing Economy: The Case of the EU-Korea FTA

摘要

On 3 October 2006, the European Union (EU) initiated a new generation Free Trade Agreement (FTA) policy in Global Europe: Competing in the World. Market potential and protection level were set out as the key economic criteria for new FTA partners. Based on these criteria, South Korea emerges as one of the EU's priorities. The EU-Korea FTA, signed on 6 October 2010, is the first of a new generation of FTAs. The Agreement is very comprehensive with regard to trade liberalization in a number of fields, including services, investment, competition, enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs), government procurement, sustainable development, cultural cooperation, and so on. Many of these policy areas are still not well regulated by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Under the Lisbon Treaty, EU trade policy shall be conducted in the context of the principles and objectives of EU foreign policy. Leveraging trade and foreign policy is expected to strengthen the EU's position in negotiating new FTAs. This article takes the EU-Korea FTA as a case study to examine the following core issues: the historical background of the EU's trade policy, legal basis and decision-making procedure of the new generation FTA, the main contents and special features of the EU-Korea FTA, and the impacts of the EU-Korea FTA on the WTO and third countries. For the future development of EU's FTA policy, this article also proposes an open regionalism approach to make the FTA compatible with the WTO.