EU trade in the time of financial crisis

Abstract

The paper is focused on the European Union (EU) trade and trade policy in the time of global financial and economic crisis. The analysis of the EU exports and imports points out that the financial crisis has hurt the intra as well as the extra-EU trade in the period 2007-2009, but differences among the EU member states have existed. Although the EU tries to support trade development in the world and remove trade barriers, some protectionist tendencies were recorded in the time of the economic crisis. The last part of the paper emphasizes the EU trade policy and some trade measures that have been taken by the EU and its member states to support trade development or vice versa, to protect domestic industries. The results of the analysis show that, although some protectionist tendencies have been recorded both in extra and intra-EU trade, trade relations that are provided among member states are of significant importance all the time.