Protecting and Projecting the Values of the EU through Trade Instruments

This Policy Brief reflects on the ways in which the European Union (EU) can use the instruments of trade policy to promote its fundamental values. This ambition is reflected in a twofold movement, where the EU acts both internally, to protect its values against outside pressures, and externally, to project these values, drawing on the economic power of the European market. The Policy Brief outlines the existing tools the EU can use to protect and project its values (Section 2). Next the prospects for strengthening this strategy, based on the potential expansion of EU values to include sustainable development, are outlined (Section 3). Finally, there is a brief conclusion (Section 4).