Today, trade policy is one of the few areas of European action in which the Union appears to have made decisive progress. Against a backdrop of the resurgence of US protectionism, intensifying strategic competition with China, and the fragmentation of global value chains, the Commission has expedited a strategy of trade diversification that encompasses market liberalization, vulnerability mitigation, and the global promotion of European regulatory standards. The three most recent cases — Mercosur, India, and Australia — illustrate this particularly clearly. These are not merely the result of successful trade negotiations; rather, they demonstrate the Union’s capacity to act politically when it possesses clear competencies, its own instruments, and effective decision-making procedures. The key point is that trade policy is not just an area in which the EU ‘works;’ it is the arena where the link between institutional integration and political capacity is most evident.

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