A New Paradigm for the EU’s Global Trade Strategy: Ethical World Trade and Economy for the Common Good

This Working Paper explores the potential of a complete reorientation of the EU’s external trade policy. It is based on a new paradigm for international trade – ethical world trade – that would replace the current paradigm of “free trade,” on which the EU’s external trade strategy and policy builds, although in recent years enriched by elements of sustainability and a move towards economic geopoliticization. The proposed paradigm shift overcomes the bipolar dichotomy “free trade” vs. “protectionism,” including the new developments in recent times, proposing a reasonable way in between: ethical trade. Whereas free trade stands for trade as an end, protectionism stands for the aspiration to reduce international trade.