Free trade agreements of the European Union

The European Union has concluded free trade agreements (FTAs). The European Union negotiates free trade deals on behalf of all of its member states, as the member states have granted the EU an "exclusive competence" to conclude trade agreements. Even so, member states' governments control every step of the process (via the Council of the European Union, whose members are national ministers from each national government):

Before negotiations start, member states' governments (via the Council of Ministers) approve the negotiating mandate;
During negotiations, member states' governments are regularly briefed on the progress of negotiations and can update the negotiations mandate or suspend negotiations;
Upon conclusion of negotiations, member states' governments decide whether the agreement should be signed;
After approval from the European Parliament and (in case the agreement covers areas other than trade such as investment protection) upon ratification in each member state parliament, member states' governments decide whether the agreement should be concluded and enter into effect.

The list below only includes countries that have an FTA with the European Union according to the WTO.

Free trade agreements in force

Free trade agreements provisionally applied

Negotiated free trade agreements

Ongoing negotiations as of January 2026:

Competence

The European Court of Justice has held that investor-state arbitration provisions (including a dedicated tribunal planned by some free trade agreements) falls under competency shared between European Union and its member states and that for this reason, the ratification of such mixed agreements should be approved by the EU as well as by each of the union's member states. This court decision has resulted in a new architecture of external trade negotiations which will have two components:

a free trade agreement - related exclusively to trade matters - which can be adopted at the EU level;
an investment agreement - containing investment, arbitration and other non-trade provisions - which needs to be ratified by the member states as well.

Impact to consumers

One study found that the trade agreements that the EU implemented over the period 1993-2013 have, on average, increased the quality of imported goods by 7% and therefore "lowered quality-adjusted prices by close to 7%," without having much of an impact on the non-adjusted price.

Notes

References

External links

Negotiations and agreements, EU trade relationships by country/region, European Commission
Trade Flows, Animated infographics, European Parliamentary Research Service
Articles on EU FTAs, at Agritrade
The Transatlantic Colossus: Global Contributions to Broaden the Debate on the EU-US Free Trade Agreement A collaborative publication with over 20 articles on the global implications of the TAFTA | TTIP
Koeth, Wolfgang (8 December 2014) "The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements: an Appropriate Response by the EU to the Challenges in its Neighbourhood"?