The European Union and the World Trade Organization - Principles, Results and Comparison of Trade Liberalization Regimes

The European Union and the World Trade Organization - Principles, Results and Comparison of Trade Liberalization Regimes Abstract The subject of this thesis is an analysis and subsequent comparison of the origin, principles, development, results and basic legal instruments of trade liberalization within the European Union and the World Trade Organization. While coexisting in the field of international economic co-operation for more than 60 years, these bodies have emerged from the same aspirations to deepen mutual economic co-operation through trade liberalization and suppression of the protectionist practices. Our primary objective is to examine and point out the aspects that both organizations share, as well as the degree and form of their differences. However, the presented work focuses on the similarities and differences between the EU and the WTO from a specific point of view. It is based on traditional expectation of most authors, believing that the EU is pursuing more ambitious goals than the WTO. Under this assumption, trade liberalization obligations between EU Member States would necessarily have to be stricter and more progressive than the WTO's respective commitments. The subsequent objective of the thesis is to examine the validity of this expectation. Regarding the analysis of the rules, the..