Free Trade Policy of European Union—Internal Core Value and External Variance

欧盟前身欧洲共同体，是世界上最大的交易商，占全球进出口的16.5％，据欧方统计。欧盟的贸易政策一直是以下一个核心价值的自由贸易。这清楚地看到欧盟各成员国，从而达到商品的自由流动的联盟和劳动力，使所有成员在经济蓬勃发展。然而，是欧盟对外贸易政策远比“自由贸易”更为复杂，因为它受到限制，受国际政治和经济现实的影响。本文旨在介绍欧盟的贸易政策和分析摆在欧盟的自由贸易政策和实际实现之间的区别。

Saving Private Ryan as the Catalyst of Americans’ Social Identification

America seems like a nation that need war films most. Hollywood bounds with American war films. From The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, Courage Under Fire, to Black hawk down, casts changed, techniques developed but the theme ever-remains. Some of these films reflect the fact, some are about reflection of philosophy, some display weapons, some depict arduous mission, and some others eulogize courage. Within this extraordinary abundance, a question comes out. Why Hollywood loves war films so much? Given that the data of box offices which indicates that war films are the type of most lucrative films, one might find that the question should be further specified as why Americans love war films so much? According to Bernard Beck from the Sociology Department of Northwest University, war films contribute greatly to the shaping of people’s collective understanding of the spirit of America. From a multi-culture perspective, he believes the background for social identification is an important factor. Because all individuals in America come with certain cultural background that consists of ethical history, customs, languages and etc., and even those long-settled Americans have their community cultures. (19) This situation has something to do with the history of America. Different from other countries with long history and rather stable making of culture and ethnic groups, America has neither long history nor a clear combination of ethnics, because it is a country built by later coming colonist from varied countries on the old continent above the history of those American Indian folks, and colonist separately occupied America and developed different areas which later called “states.” This historic distinctions of culture and ethnic and lack of long historical bond urges a collective value of America to bring people together, and the emphasis on very freedom does not help in shaping the country as whole. In this sense，the need underlines the importance of Hollywood war films, as they can advertise the pursuit of a communal goal.

   Saving Private Ryan is a good representative of successful Hollywood war films. One of its success is that the film has combined three main themes of all war films: heroism, humanism, and trend of anti-war, and has formed a collective reflection of war that allows people to think deeper and further about what war is, and what a nation is—in this film which means what American is. Therefore, it even could be seen as the catalyst in the process of America’s social identification.

   It is hard to tell what is the theme of Saving Private Ryan，just as it is almost impossible to separate the three themes of war films from each other. It casts a question about how Americans should identify themselves with their countries and the American ancestors at the beginning scene, and leaves the audiences the time of a complete film to beckon on the question “Am I a good man?” The film starts with the very end of the story, far behind the end of that war, when old Ryan walks into the cemetery in companion with his families. It was a nice day, cozy weather in soft sunshine. This picturesque scene might be a metaphor of nowadays America where wars are long gone and all trades thrive and develop. However, SPR is such a film that it would throw you a question like “Am I a good man?” in this extremely peaceful and innocent scenery, leaving a thread for American viewers to discover in themselves. It is a question not only meaningful to Ryan but also to Americans who is sitting in front of the screen. It is an enquiry of Americans identification—as the martyrs sacrificed for America, are you good enough to take over this country from them? Here, this “good” is a moral concert as well as a judge of values that Americans are proud of and later represent inside the film.

    First value is anti-war. All war films truly reflecting the cruelty of war are anti-war, and therefore SPR, which is famous for the royalty to the cruelty of battles, is anti-war. Among all human activities, there is nothing more violent and cruel than wars. The wars are a collective exhibition of human actions in a circumstance without ordinary social constrains. Nowadays, aimed with the development cinematic technologies, war films become showcases of how far theatres can go to represent the in-the-field experience towards audiences. In this light, SPR has fulfilled the outer expectations for a war film. In the film, Steven Spielberg was almost like burning money for warfare spectacles and bursting bags of artificial plasma. After the calmness in the cemetery, the camera gradually zooms into that landing—the he Normandy Invasion started. With the peculiar manipulation of camera, the film in a sense forms a cinematic realistic for the audience. When the vessels come closer, soldiers dump out from the vehicles into the water, and the scenes switch from portraits of army men to the struggles in water. This turning is a smart invention that adds to the movie-going experience as scenes in water is definitely not something of daily life, and it also starts a possibility of another part of story telling—the sudden change from dialogues to deaths. Coming with the switch, the sound tract changed. Bombs, machine gun, and bullets gave way to “silence” where only the sound of water is clear, and the sound of war goes out of the scene—just like from a distant place. However, in the picture are still soldier falling death into the water, bullets shot into the water, waves come with struggle inside the water. This silence creates break for audience to react with what has just happened in a few seconds and this later reaction allows people to feel what the war is—the war is something that nobody can get away with it. In the jungle of bullets where even the soft water could not protect bodies from the sharp movement of mass destructing weapons, two soldiers who are just about to untie their belt are shot down and their blood turns the water into red. A soldier is trying so hard to stretch away a belt around him, struggling painfully inside the water. Once, twice, the third times, and gradually loses fight. Yet, the camera has not spare this “calmness” for long and goes back to the heart-tearing battlefield. Within 30 seconds, the film creates a contrast of chaos outside the water, and the “silence” inside the water. The chaos is how war destroys people without mercy, and the silence is how powerless people are in the war. This parallel narration of one scene reveals the cruelty of war without extra description. This inconsistency of cinematic narration accomplishes what normal camera cannot do, enriching the scene of a war. All the blood and bodies, and even the silence are wrenching people’s heart and all of them are the accusation of cruelty of war.

    Second value is humanism. War films might be films about wars but not necessary shooting the war fields. In the end, war films are about how the good part in human overcomes the evil half. The story telling of war film has to go down to the characters making. The shining point of SPR also lies in its view of people, which it depicts a group of soldiers who are just ordinary people like you and me. The character best depicted is the translator, Upham. He is the one that takes the least time to identify with. He is so “weak” that even cannot kill a bounded German soldier. He is also peacockery that when the other says letting the German soldier go is bullshit, he only repeats as if he could give the captive execution. He lacks courage. At the very time in the battle with German soldiers, he pied in his pants. Even the death of his mate can be blamed on him. However, after all when he sees the German soldier he released, he shoots. It is hard to say whether the change in Upham is a kind of growing up, but what is for sure is that the film reflects the conflicts inside these characters and between one individual with the others. Though depicting the destruction of these soldiers psychologically and physically, SPR underlines the sparkles within humanity. They are courage, sympathy, and perseverance. In the film a scene repeats—soldiers are copying what those sacrificed mates’ letters to their family, and the original ones already are tinted Free Trade Policy of European Union—Internal Core Value and External Variance

Introduction
The European Union, formerly known as the European Community, is the largest trader of the world, accounting for 16.5% of the world’s import and export, according to EU statistics. The trading policy of EU has always been following one core value—free trade. This is seen clearly within the members of EU, so as to attain the free flow of goods and workforce of the Union, allowing all members to thrive in economy. However, external trade policies of EU are far more complex than “free trade”, for it is restricted and influenced by international political and economic realities. The paper aims to introduce the trade policies of EU and analyze the distinctions that lie between EU’s free trade policies and actual implementations.

Part 1  An Introduction to overall EU Trade Policy
Building the free market with the trade of goods, services, and people is the original aim of the EU, and freedom brings the energy to the EU economy. Nowadays, the European Union, a politico-economic union of 28 states, is one of the biggest political groups and economies in the world. The famous economic part of EU, the Euro zone (officially called the euro area, is a union of 19 European Union member states adopted the euro as their common currency), is the largest exporter and importer which use the Euro as their common currency and sole legal tender. “With just 7% of the world's population, it (EU) accounts for over one quarter of the world's wealth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) – the total value of goods and services produced.” (The European Union explained: Trade, 3)

With the process of globalization, the pattern of industry is changing significantly. So the trade policy needs to be changed with the times changing.  Today, the parts of products are produced in different parts of the world, and they are assembled in certain place in the last proceed. It is necessary to clear the trade limits such as taxes and other barriers for the economic development in current circumstance for the economy.

The European Union has proposed many policies to accelerate the trade. The core and key of these trade policies is free trade.EU has so many complex national borders. To build a free trade market, the EU tries to liberalize its member states markets (allowing imports to compete with domestic products freely). And meanwhile its trade policy is decided by the Treaty on European Union as amended by Lisbon. (Bomberg, 122-123) Overtime, the member states of European Union have become more interdependent, and the EU seems becoming a big state. Free trade means trade of goods, services with little taxes or without taxes and unregulated accessing to markets and markets information. The member states of the EU encourage free trade, which stimulates the economy strongly. Besides, “In line with WTO rules, the EU has its own range of trade defense tools to guarantee fair play in a competitive world.” (The European Union explained: Trade,14) So EU trade policy seems more preponderant compared to some other countries’.

For instance, unlike the US policy, the content of the EU agreements varies considerably from case to case. “EU–Chile is seen as something of a model as it represents the most recent and advanced FTA, but it is only likely to be a model when the EU negotiates with countries at a similar level of development.” (Woolcock,5)

According to an economic theory called comparative advantage, one has a comparative advantage over another in producing a certain product if they can yield the good costing lower. An agent who has a comparative advantage can increase the number of products and decrease the consumption of the product under free trade. “I argue that European integration has played a considerable role in the liberalization of European external trade policy by changing the institutional context in which trade policy is made.”(Hanson,56)

There is no doubt that the EU has become the world's biggest single market zone. Not only European but also international investors enjoy the benefits of the Eurozone, where the movement of goods, services, and people is free. Through free trade agreements, the EU engages with a large number of partners, which seek to create jobs for EU by opening other country's markets. The EU has been more aggressive and competitive under the free trade. And meanwhile “Preferential trade policy agreements also vary widely across products and exporters.” (Cipollina, 42) So the total trade in the EU accounted for 66 percent of the overall exports created by the member states and 64 percent of their imports in the year 2009.

Apart from free trade to increase the economy, it is hard to ignore the humanitarian policies. The EU helps to decrease child labors and environmental destruction and emphasizes the combination of trade and development for many developing countries. It also allows the developing countries paying lower duties and supports the increase of exports of the developing counties in order to support them. Free trade applied in the European Union has showed its strong power to stimulate the economy and the benefits it brings. It is the tendency to build a big free trade zone including all the countries and regions in the world, but the process will be hard and cost long time.


Part 2  EU External Trade Policy—A Degree of Freedom
In terms of European Union’s external trade policies, however, there are a lot of new concerns on whether the EU as a whole should be carrying on with the free trade policy. Fortunately, the EU has been implementing its external economic policy in a way that is as liberal as possible; but such free policy also comes in different degrees and levels. For example, according to Richard Gibb (888), the EU has a pyramid of trading privileges which includes all forms of countries that EU trade with. On the top is the EU countries, between which total free trade is implemented; there are also six other levels that constitutes the pyramid, and the categorization is based on the development situation of certain countries. For example, highly developed countries and regions such as United States, Japan and Canada are placed in the bottom of the pyramid, going by the name of “most favored countries”. The less developed a country is, the more likely it would go to a higher position in the pyramid. But certainly, the EU makes the categorization out of its own economic profits—for those who are placed in a higher status, EU can make its export products go freely in those countries without tariff, while the imports from this country are very few or won’t possess any threat to native products.
Another example of this categorization is the negotiation of FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between European Union and MERCOSUR, a free trade zone of several Latin America countries including Brazil, Argentina, etc. As put by Victor Burma-Thomas (2000: 3), EU has to consider multiple dimensions of trading goods when negotiating with MERCOSUR states. Agricultural product is a key constitute in the agreement for it is listed by EU as “sensitive” product. Leading by French minister who has strong intention to protect the interest of French peasants, the EU found itself hard to negotiate further conditions with MERCOSUR states, and they happen to be the main agricultural product exporter of the world. Here although EU wishes to carry on with its free trade policy, objections coming from the public and concerned states will inevitably turn to protectionism to preserve their own interest and put them in the first place.

Besides, political concerns will also affect the negotiation of free trade agreements and external free trade policies of EU. If we go back to the example between EU and MERCOSUR, we can see that the negotiation is placed under heavy influence of NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) and the negotiation of FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), in which the United States is participated and wish to obtain its own economic interest (Burma-Thomas: 3). Here we can see that external trade policy is concerned with international politics. As in the case with Eastern European Partnership, the EU planned to sign a free trade agreement as early as the 2000s, and Ukraine, as one of the earliest members of the partnership, have already experienced large amount of inflow of EU exports (Daniel Butyter: 68). Also, given that EU is an alliance of countries instead of one independent state, all the participated states will have to listen to the public opinion of their own country. A study made by M. Shawn Reichert and Bernadette M. E. Jungblut (2007: 400) shows that the making of external trade policy of EU is a complicated interplay process between “Principal” (the public of the states) and “Agent” (government of the states); after this, the policy has go up to the layer of the whole Union, in which the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament will all participate and negotiate separately.

World economic situation is also reshaping the EU economic and trade policy to a great extent. As McKinney (2014: 5) had pointed out, the rapid growth of Asian economy, particular Chinese economy, is changing the world economy situation drastically. Given the huge population of China, its economic achievements are becoming more significant than ever. The statistics have shown that China has become EU’s second largest trading partner as early as in 2011, which means that imports and exports from both parties have been immense. However, due to the fact that Chinese economy is an export-led one, it is impossible for EU to compare against China in terms of export products, for China has natural privilege in labor price and various other aspects. On the other hand, China’s demand for high technological products from EU is relatively large due to China’s lack in those techniques, but it also wishes to protect its own national industry of hi-tech products. All these factors have made it impossible for EU to stick to free trade policy when dealing with China. As a matter of fact, EU has even sued China several times for “anti-dumping” targets. The recent anti-dumping prosecution that took place in 2012 on Chinese photovoltaic products decided to impose an 11.8% anti-dumping tariff on these products. Although the case was solved later in 2013, it reflected EU’s change in trading policy when dealing with changes coming from other parts of the globe. The similar situations also appear in other fields such as tires, as reported by European Commission and several independent scholars (138) on tariff on tires manufactured in China.
Conclusion
The EU has been influencing the European and the world economy ever since it came to foundation in 1950s. In order to maintain the mutual prosperity of all member states, the EU has been implementing and pushing forward its free trade policy ever since, under the dominance of powerful economic entities such as France, Germany and United Kingdom. The new members of European Union have also adapted themselves to this principle to gain more profit. However, as an interstate economic and political entity, European Union has several concerns on its external trade policy; while trying hard to maintain a free policy and comply with WTO rules, EU would take protectionism measures to ensure the interests of certain member states when facing challenges from other economic powers. With the tendency of economy globalization and the rising of Asian states, EU should take more liberal attitudes towards external challenges and continue to pursue for the free trade policies which has been implementing within itself.


Work Cited

1.Bomberg, Elizabeth, et al. The European Union: How does it work? New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. (chapter 5)[Category: Book]

2.Hanson, Brian T. "What happened to fortress Europe?: External trade policy liberalization in the European Union." International Organization 52.01 (1998): 55-85. Print. [Category: Academic scholar paper]

3.Woolcock, Stephen. "European Union policy towards free trade agreements."EUPE, Working Brussels Papers-3/2007. Disponible sur: www. ecipe. org/pdf/EWP-3-2007. pdf (2007). Print. (chapter 3) [Category: Academic scholar paper]

4.European Union Center, European Commission, The European Union Explained: Trade, Directorate-General for Communication, Citizens information,1049 Brussels,Belgium. Manuscript updated in November 2014. Retrieved From http://europa.eu/pol/pdf/flipbook/en/trade_en.pdf [Category: Information]

5.Cipollina, Maria, and Luca Salvatici. "Trade impact of European Union preferences." The Trade Impact of European Union Preferential Policies. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. 111-125. Print. (chapter 3) [Category: Book]

6.Bhagwati, Jagdish, David Greenaway, and Arvind Panagariya. "Trading preferentially: Theory and policy." The Economic Journal 108.449 (1998): 1128-1148. Print. [Category: Academic scholar paper]

7. Bulma-Thomas, Victor. “The European Union and MERCOSUR: Prospects for a Free Trade Agreement.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs,Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. v+1-22. Print. [Category: Academic scholar paper]

8. Gibb, Richards. “Globalisation and Africa's Economic Recovery: A Case Study of the European Union-South AfricaPost-Apartheid Trading Regime.” Journal of Southern African Studies,Vol. 29, No. 4 (Dec., 2003), pp. 885-901. Print. [Category: Academic scholar paper]

9. Reichert, M. Shawn, and Bernadette ME Jungblut. "European Union external trade policy: multilevel principal–agent relationships." Policy Studies Journal 35.3 (2007): 395-418. [Category: Academic scholar paper]

10. McKinney, Joesph. “United States-EU Economic Relations In a Changing Global Economy.” The Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 14 No. 6. (2014). [Category: Academic scholar paper]

11. Gasiorek, Michael and Javier Lopez-Gonzalez. “China-EU Global Value Chains: Who Creates Value? How and Where? Growing Linkages and Opportunities.” Manuscript Updated in September 2013. Retrieved from http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/china-eu-global-value-chains-pbNG0414105/?CatalogCategoryID=m0sKABstN9AAAAEjuJAY4e5L [Category: Information]

12. Butyter, Daniel. "Trade Development between the European Union and Members of the Eastern Partnership Programme. Example of Ukraine and Poland." Intelektinė ekonomika 8 (1 (2014): 65-78. Printed. [Category: Academic paper]



51Due网站原创范文除特殊说明外一切图文著作权归51Due所有；未经51Due官方授权谢绝任何用途转载或刊发于媒体。如发生侵犯著作权现象，51Due保留一切法律追诉权。