Commercial Policy — The World at Large

Abstract

When Articles 110–116 of the Treaty provided for a ‘uniform commercial policy’ to govern the Community’s relationships with the rest of the world they were doing no more than acknowledge the inevitable. In joining a customs union each member state necessarily sacrifices its right to establish or amend tariffs on imports from non-member countries; a joint policy applicable to all member countries is inescapable. Article 110 indicated that the Community should adopt a commercial policy which would be conducive ‘to the harmonious development of world trade’ but the extent to which it has achieved this admirable objective is open to some debate. Certainly by its sheer size the Community must exert considerable influence on the world economy; in 1986, even excluding intra-Community trade, it accounted for 21 per cent of world exports - a share equal to that of the United States and Japan combined.