The principal elements of the European Commission's recent Communication on its external trade policy (titled "Global Europe") are assessed in this paper. Certain shifts are discernible in the Commission's position, in particular as they relate to the prominence given to market access objectives and to bilateral and regional trade agreements. Even so, this latest Communication is probably best thought of as an evolution in the Commission's trade policy and not an abrupt break with the past. Particular attention is given here to the potential payoffs from the proposed bilateral trade negotiations with selected Asian nations and the need for further thinking on the Commission's part with respect to the multilateral trading system.
The European Union represents perhaps the most extensive international collaborative venture in modern times. In this paper three principles are distilled from European experience that may be of use to policymakers seeking to promote cross-border commerce and market integration in the 21st century.
Using survey data on technical assistance projects that was collected by the International Competition Network's Competition Policy Implementation Working Group during 2004 and 2005, I estimate the effect of different types of technical assistance on several performance measures of recipient competition authorities. Moreover, I examine whether the impact of each type of technical assistance varies with the capacity of a recipient authority to absorb technical assistance (which I will refer to as absorptive capacity) and the socio-economic development of the recipient country. A clear pattern of results emerges. Not all forms of technical assistance are alike in their effects and the impact on recipient authority performance appears to vary systematically with absorptive capacity and socio-economic development. Taken at face value, and supposing that maximising the positive effect on recipient authority performance is the sole objective of a technical assistance programme in competition law and enforcement, these findings have implications for the mix of technical assistance activities that should be offered to competition authorities. These findings may, therefore, be of interest to suppliers of technical assistance which include established competition authorities, aid ministries, and international organisations.
