Publication

This paper examines EU trade relations and trade policies from the 1960s to 2000. The author outlines the nature of both multilateral and bilateral trade policy commitments in goods and briefly in services. He then discusses bilateral agreements on regulatory issues and concentrates upon issues relating to technical barriers to trade and specifically the mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures. He contends that if such agreements have a significant effect on reducing the costs of exporting between the two parties to the agreement, then they will be discriminatory.