The European Union has a tradition of using its external trade policy as an instrumentof diplomacy, as a basis to further its own development. It also attemptsthereby to lean on its partners, so that the latter may come to respect its norms andpoints of reference. The limits of this de facto external policy are howeverincreasingly obvious: these are linked in particular to the internal divergenceswhich exist between different members of the Union, as well as to the evolution ofconditions external to the Union, such as the WTO negociation rounds, the rise ofChina as a superpower, or policies stemming from the American and Japanesecompetitors. Can the EU have a common trade policy which carries decisiveweight, without at the same time holding a global diplomatic vision?

Raphaël Delpech is Research Fellow at the Centre de recherche européen of Bayonne (France) and Legal Adviser marketing policy Subdirectorate and investment of the General Direction of the Treasury and the Economic Policy

Jean-Marie Paugam, former student of the École nationale d’administration, is Research Fellow at Ifri. He was an adviser near the Minister for the Economy, Finances and Industry (2001-2002), and represented France at the Committee of marketing policy of the European Union.