EU Strategic Autonomy Trade Strategy

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that supply chains for products in the EU are heavily dependent on third countries, leading to renewed institutional discussion of developing a trade strategy for the EU based on ‘open strategic autonomy’. The European Commission set out its view on the trade strategy for the coming years yesterday, which emphasises the:

EU’s agenda for green and digital transformation (removing unjustified trade barriers), strengthened multilateralism, reformation of global trade rules (WTO rules - see more on that here) to ensure they are fair and sustainable, and more assertiveness on the EU’s part in defending its interests and values - ‘including through new tools’ (such as through trade agreements, but could pote