EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht Discusses Trade and Geopolitics

The outgoing EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht delivered an address entitled “Trade and Geopolitics: T-TIP, Ukraine and beyond” and led a discussion with students and experts on September 11, 2014. Commissioner de Gucht discussed some of the major political obstacles for European member states in balancing protectionist policy with mutually beneficial objectives.

Commissioner de Gucht explored the geostrategic importance of trade, citing numerous cases such as the economic growth stories of China and Poland. “You can’t explain the explosive growth of China unless you take into account the very open international economy and the trade environments it has been living,” he said. Commissioner de Gucht stressed the importance of trade as a geostrategic tool and blamed long-standing issues over trade and energy for fueling the crisis in Ukraine.

“We have been able to create a Pax Europaea without wars but by offering people an attractive future,” he stated.

Commissioner de Gucht noted that the prospective Transatlantic Trade Investment and Partnership (T-TIP) required “mutual recognition” and collaboration between the European Union and the United States on creating “rules, norms, and standards."

"People must be compelled to go the difficult road of harmonization,” by working from the start towards “rules, norms, standards that we develop together,” said Commissioner de Gucht.