Overview of the Trade Relations Between the European Community/Union and the United States at the Threshold of Globalization and Post-globalization Era

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to present to the European reader the implications of the unstable relationships between the United States and an integrated Europe. The article focuses on the trade relations between the US and Europe in the globalization era. It explains the meaning of some basic terms used by trade experts, such as globalization, regionalization, glocalization, and strategic trade. The author also tries to explore the reasons for the recent crisis of global trade. The main part of the paper reviews the major disputes between these two regions which resulted in postponing of the negotiations of the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. As we have observed in the introduction of the article, the relationships between the European Union and the United States have always been complicated and the article presents the main reasons for these disagreements. In a time of renewed Trans-Atlantic negotiations, pro-American sentiments in Europe grew stronger, and European experts on trade and politics emphasized that the US significantly increased support for the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI). Still, with comments repeated by President Trump many times that “Europe needs its own army”, the European media began warning the readers that the crisis in US-EU relations may soon return.