The Effects of Internalization Process on the EU-27 Foreign Trade

The European Union’s trade grew strongly between 2002 and 2007, both with the upswing in world trade taking place after 2003 and with the growing participation of the new Member States on the international stage, some of which simultaneously witnessed rapid internal economic development. Although its international trade in goods grew between 2002 and 2007, the European Union has actually lost weight in world trade, given that the growing reciprocal exchanges of goods between the older EU-15 and those Member States that joined during the course of the 2004 and 2007 enlargements have been “internalized”. What used to be extra-European Union trade has now become part of intra-European Union trade. In 2007, the European Union continues to be the most important exporter at world level and the second importer, just behind the United States.