The Implementation of the EU Strategy for Free Trade Through the Conclusion of Bilateral Agreements with its Major Partners the Latest Developments

The need to achieve greater opening of international markets in more areas of economic activity has prompted the EU since the mid-2000s, specifically from 2006 onwards, to launch a process of negotiating new bilateral economic agreements. The purpose was not to conclude agreements that would be limited to regulating the traditional aspects of trade with its economic partners, but agreements whose scope would include all economic relations between the contracting parties. The key element of these new generation agreements is their global content given that, regardless of their title, their object is to regulate both trade in goods and services and trade-related areas such as investment status, public procurement, competition issues, protection of intellectual property rights. Their basic aim is to liberalize and facilitate trade in goods and services between the parties. The present study seeks to examine the objectives as well as the fundamental rules set out in these EU agreements. Â JEL classification numbers: K33, F02, F21.