The EU is one of the key players in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This is because the EU has a common trade policy, where the European Commission negotiates on behalf of the Union 's 25 Member States.
As such, the EU is one of the driving forces behind the current round of multilateral trade negotiations in the WTO, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). The DDA comprises both further market opening and additional rule making, underpinned by commitments to take measures necessary to integrate developing countries into the world trading system, notably by strengthening assistance to build capacity. The main objective of the New Round is to put development at the heart of the world trade system in a way that will help them combat poverty.
In July 2004 the WTO Members adopted a Framework Agreement on the DDA that sets out the modalities for the further negotiations.
EU Trade Policy and the WTO
The EU has a common trade policy (“Common Commercial Policy”). In other words, where trade, including WTO matters, are concerned, the EU acts as one single actor, where the European Commission negotiates trade agreements and represents the European interests on behalf of the Union's 25 Member States.
The legal basis for the EU’s trade policy is Article 133 of the European Community Treaty. On this basis, the Commission negotiates on behalf of the Member States, in consultation with a special committee, “the Article 133 Committee”. The 133 Committee is composed of representatives from the 25 Member States and the European Commission. Its main function is to coordinate EU trade policy. The Committee meets on a weekly basis, usually on a Friday in Brussels at the headquarters of the Council of Ministers. It discusses the full range of trade policy issues affecting the Community, from the strategic issues surrounding the launch of rounds of trade negotiations at the WTO to specific difficulties with the export of individual products, and considers the trade aspects of wider Community policies in order to ensure consistency of policy. In this Committee, the Commission presents and secures endorsement of the Member States on all trade policy issues. The major formal decisions (for example agreement to launch or conclude negotiations) are then confirmed by the Council of Ministers.
The European Community Treaty grants a more limited role to the European Parliament (EP) in terms of trade policy: according to the current treaty, the “assent” of the EP may be required for major treaty ratifications, when covering more than trade. However, the Commission favours greater Parliamentary involvement in Trade Policy and hence consults and informs the Parliament as systematically as possible. It supports a more formal extension of the Parliament’s powers over trade policy. The draft Constitutional Treaty of the EU provides for a major extension of the EP’s power over trade policy.
The current WTO trade round, the Doha Development Agenda, provides a good example of how trade policy is coordinated in practice. The Commission sets and carries forward the priorities and aims of the EU as laid down in guidelines given by the Council of Ministers. Officials from the Commission's Directorate General for Trade, under the authority of the Commissioner are charged with actually conducting the negotiations, and speak on behalf of the EU as a whole. Coordination with Member States is assured at all times through the 133 Committee, while the Commission regularly informs the Parliament. At the end of the Round, the Council has to agree formally the outcome.
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