ABSTRACT
European Union (EU) trade governance has undergone a radical shift. Until the first temporary suspension of the Doha Round in July 2006, multilateralism was the centrepiece of EU trade policy. To be sure, preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have always been a part of EU trade policy, but it was only with the publication of Global Europe: Competing in the World in 2006 that the EU shifted its trade policy towards regional and bilateral trade agreements. Dis-appointed with the slowness of multilateral trade negotiations, EU member states gave the Commission a negotiating mandate to resume negotiations with Mercosur and to begin bilateral trade negotiations with the ASEAN countries, South Korea, India, China, Russia, Canada, Central America and the Andean countries. In contrast to negotiations at the multilateral level, when negotiating bilaterally, the EU linked trade agreements with conditionality rules on democratic principles and human rights.
