Abstract
The world trade order is undergoing a rapid transformation. This transformation challenges those European (small and large) open economies which have been its long-term promoters as members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and/or the European Union (EU).
However, the WTO-based order found itself in an institutional inertia by the mid-2000s. The minilateral free trade agreements such as the CETA and TTIP aimed at resolving this inertia.
Negotiating them made the EU trade policy one of the main frontrunners in this asymmetric deepening of trade and investment relations. Since the mid-2010s, the liberal trade order has, however, been openly questioned by a range of protectionist challenges.
Besides the unilateral threats of import tariffs, real bilateral trade wars, and Brexit contradictions, a long-awaited reform of the WTO is under discussion.