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Florin DĂNESCU - The Banking Sector as Critical Infrastructure in the Logic of Hybrid Conflict: Post-2014 Legislative Convergence in Central and Eastern Europe and the Case of Romania

Alexandru POPOVICI - The Contribution of the Music Industry to GDP and Employment: A Comparative Analysis

Mohammed AL-NASSERY - Implications of the War in the Middle East: An Analysis of the Economic, Security, Humanitarian, and Political Dimensions

Mihai LĂCĂTUŞ - GDP as a Means, Not an End: Inequality as the Missing Variable in Fiscal Policy Design – A 60-Country Analysis of Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being

Articles on Issue Theme

Mădălina JURUBIțĂ

Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti

Accelerating geopolitical shocks and geoeconomic competition after 2020 have pushed the European Union to revisit the purpose and toolkit of its trade policy. This paper maps the key redefinitions required for the Common Commercial Policy (CCP) in a context marked by supply-chain disruptions, war in the EU’s neighbourhood, systemic rivalry in the Indo-Pacific, and heightened contestation over technology and critical inputs. The analysis first clarifies the boundary between trade policy and the broader external economic policy, then reviews the evolution of CCP competences and the institutional architecture shaping EU decision-making. Building on recent debates on fragmentation of globalization, selective de-risking/decoupling, and the securitization of interdependence, the paper assesses how trade instruments increasingly serve objectives of economic security, sustainability, and strategic autonomy. An applied comparison of the EU’s trade stance toward China and the United States highlights both trade-offs and complementarities across areas such as trade defence, FDI screening, standards, and climate-related conditionality. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving coherence across instruments and aligning trade policy with the Union’s external objectives while preserving openness through risk-managed engagement.

ŒCONOMICA no. 4/2025

Keywords: EU trade policy, Common Commercial Policy, geoeconomics, economic security, open strategic autonomy, de-risking and decoupling, global value chains, trade defence instruments, FDI screening, sustainability conditionality, EU-China relations, EU-US relations

JEL: F13, F15, F51, F52, F55, O19

Redefining EU Trade Policy for an Age of Geoeconomic Rivalry: Strategic Autonomy, Security, and Resilience

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