The internal market and external economic relations

Abstract

What is the relationship between the internal market and the Union’s common commercial policy (CCP), the basis for its external economic relations? Can the CCP be seen as presenting the external dimension of the internal market? These questions raise others, concerning the relative scope of the internal market and the CCP, the boundary line or overlap between the CCP and external powers derived from the internal market provisions themselves, and the extent to which the CCP does, or should, reflect internal market objectives. This chapter will explore the relationship between the EU’s internal market and its CCP. The six years since the Lisbon Treaty have resolved some, but certainly not all, of the uncertainties over the revised Treaty provisions on the CCP, as well as bringing external trade policy back into the arena of public debate. The fundamental question at the heart of this chapter is what, given its essentially internal focus, it might mean to speak of the external dimension of the internal market, and in what ways the CCP might play that role. This is not simply a question of the extent to which the two policy fields map onto each other in terms of the scope and nature of Union powers; it also raises the question of the extent to which the CCP’s objectives are tied to those of the internal market.