The European Union conducts a trade policy which is to ensure the best possible opportunities for economic cooperation with third countries. It includes free trade and investment agreements. The EU has so far signed 41 such agreements with 72 countries.

By helping to create ‘National Single Window’ (NSW) systems for countries around the world, Jonathan Koh has been enabling greater trade for decades. Part the Hinrich Foundation's 'Future of Trade' series, we recently interviewed Koh to discuss the progress of NSWs and the prospects of digital trade agreements such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) between Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The EU and the US remain each other’s most important economic partners, despite the confrontative course of the Trump administration and China’s rise as a global economic power. This is particularly the case as interconnectedness and the role of foreign affiliates in exchanging know-how and services have been gaining importance as the very fundamentals of future globalization.

China's shares of EU countries' goods imports rose very significantly between 2000 and 2019, with a focus on the first decade. Germany’s shares, on the other hand, have been falling since 2005.