Free trade agreements of the European Union
Overview of free trade agreements in the European Union
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Through European Union and World Trade Organization
- Before negotiations start, member states' governments (via the Council of Ministers) approve the negotiating mandate;
- During negotiations, member states' governments are regularly briefed on the progress of negotiations and can update the negotiations mandate or suspend negotiations;
- Upon conclusion of negotiations, member states' governments decide whether the agreement should be signed;
- After approval from the European Parliament and (in case the agreement covers areas other than trade such as investment protection) upon ratification in each member state parliament, member states' governments decide whether the agreement should be concluded and enter into effect.
The list below only includes countries that have an FTA with the European Union according to the WTO.
Free trade agreements in force
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Free trade agreements provisionally applied
Negotiated free trade agreements
Ongoing negotiations as of January 2026:
- India–EU Free Trade Agreement
- Indonesia–EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
- EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement
- EU-United Arab Emirates Free Trade Agreement
- EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement
- EU-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement
- EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement
Competence
The European Court of Justice has held that investor-state arbitration provisions (including a dedicated tribunal planned by some free trade agreements) falls under competency shared between European Union and its member states and that for this reason, the ratification of such mixed agreements should be approved by the EU as well as by each of the union's member states. This court decision has resulted in a new architecture of external trade negotiations which will have two components:
- a free trade agreement - related exclusively to trade matters - which can be adopted at the EU level;
- an investment agreement - containing investment, arbitration and other non-trade provisions - which needs to be ratified by the member states as well.
Impact to consumers
One study found that the trade agreements that the EU implemented over the period 1993-2013 have, on average, increased the quality of imported goods by 7% and therefore "lowered quality-adjusted prices by close to 7%," without having much of an impact on the non-adjusted price.