Common Commercial Policy
The EU is a customs union having economic agreements with most countries or blocks of countries. The EU negotiates on behalf of the member states. Most international commercial agreements can be decided by a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers and with the assent procedure of the European Parliament. See Art. 207 TFEU.
The Lisbon Treaty establish the full common commercial policy as an exclusive EU competence where member states can do nothing on their own. Today most trade policy is exclusive EU competence.
The Lisbon Treaty adds direct foreign investments and trade matters dealing with intellectual property to the competence of the common trade policy. It also introduces qualified majority votes on negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, WTO. See Art. 207 TFEU and 212.3 TFEU.
In the chapter on the WTO you can find a longer description and two different comments.
Links
See also Agreements with other countries, Free trade area and Legal personality.
