Yesterday the EU bragged about its global trade agreements but here’s the truth

Proof: EU has more trade deals 'on hold' than it has 'in force'

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Is it any wonder President Trump puts the EU in ‘the naughty chair’?

With all countries around the world still reeling from President Trump’s announcements on trade tariffs, and the conflict with China escalating to never-before-seen levels, the EU chose yesterday to trumpet its supposed success in trade deals around the world. As ever, the EU’s claims go rather further than the reality. The Facts4EU think-tank team has reviewed the EU’s latest claims and can reveal the true picture.

Firstly, and to remind Rejoiners of the clear-cut benefit of no longer being part of the European Union, here is what President Trump said in response to the EU’s offer of zero tariffs on industrial goods:

“The European Union has been very, very bad to us, they don’t take our cars, like Japan in that sense, they don’t take our agricultural product. They don’t take anything practically.”

- President Trump, White House, Mon 07 Apr 2025

Yesterday the EU Commission published the following on X (formerly Twitter)

The power of trade at a glance ↓

🇪🇺 🤝 🇦🇱 🇩🇿 🇦🇩 🇦🇬 🇦🇲 🇦🇿 🇧🇸 🇧🇧 🇧🇿 🇧🇦 🇧🇼 🇨🇲 🇨🇦 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇰🇲 🇨🇷 🇨🇮 🇩🇲 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇪🇬 🇸🇻 🇸🇿 🇫🇴 🇫🇯 🇬🇪 🇬🇭 🇬🇩 🇬🇹 🇬🇾 🇭🇳 🇮🇸 🇮🇱 🇮🇶 🇯🇲 🇯🇵 🇯🇴 🇰🇿 🇽🇰 🇱🇧 🇱🇸 🇱🇮 🇲🇬 🇲🇺 🇲🇽 🇲🇩 🇲🇪 🇲🇦 🇲🇿 🇳🇦 🇳🇿 🇳🇮 🇲🇰 🇳🇴 🇵🇸 🇵🇬 🇵🇪 🇼🇸 🇸🇲 🇷🇸 🇸🇨 🇸🇬 🇸🇧 🇿🇦 🇰🇷 🇰🇳 🇱🇨 🇻🇨 🇸🇷 🇨🇭 🇹🇹 🇹🇳 🇹🇷 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇻🇳 🇿🇼

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) April 8, 2025

This shows the flags of 78 countries, including that of the UK. The EU Commission’s Trade and Economic Security Directorate puts the number at 77 on its website. Unfortunately neither of these present a true picture.

The EU has fewer trade agreements “in force” than it has “on hold”

Analysis of the EU’s own categorisation of its trading arrangements globally is not a simple task, as we will show, but below is an ‘at-a-glance’ chart showing the true picture.

What the above chart shows

In the chart above we have used the EU’s own terminology for the agreements. Those ‘in force’ are those described as such by the Commission. These are contained within the list of 78 which are described more generically as being ‘Agreements in Place’.

Of the 20 agreements ‘in force’, six of these are with the Balkans countries. As we have reported on many previous occasions, these deals were primarily done to bring these countries closer to becoming full EU members. The emphasis has been far more on getting these countries to adhere to reasonable western standards of democracy and human rights (and to reduce rampant corruption) than it has been on trade.

The EU is desperate to increase its membership after losing the UK and it is trying to do so by giving these countries massive amounts of EU member countries’ money each year. Below is a chart we published in late 2023 showing this. The bulk of the money shown went to the six Balkans countries. These are hardly, therefore, what might be called 'normal' trade deals, and yet we have included them in the 20 'in force'.

Other types of EU ‘trade agreements’

Also contained within the EU’s somewhat optimistic version of its trade picture are agreements which have little or absolutely no impact on tariffs whatsoever. In some previous research on this, we uncovered the following.

Taking the first category there are just three countries listed. Of these, the tiny states of Andorra and San Marino are effectively both part of the EU anyway. Turkey is the only real country listed as being in a Customs Union with the EU.

We can eliminate the final category completely. These are not trade agreements in any normal understanding of the term. They do not affect tariffs at all, by the EU’s own admission.

In the middle category we must also eliminate “Association” and “Stabilisation” Agreements on the same basis. Below is the official text we accessed from the EU’s law library for an “Association Agreement”. This one is with a country we picked at random: the Middle Eastern country of Jordan.

Association Agreement - Jordan

This kind of agreement is akin to saying “Let’s be nice to each other and talk about trade.” Even the EU does not describe these as free trade agreements, although it includes them in the overall numbers. Some of the “Economic Partnership Agreements”, such as that with Lesotho in Africa, contain similar sections and only grant “Most Favoured Nation” status on WTO rules, albeit with tariff reductions in some areas.

Coming soon…

We intend to publish a further report comparing the EU with the independent United Kingdom when it comes to trade deals, if this would be of interest to readers? (Spoiler alert: the UK comes out of this rather well…)

[ Sources: EU Commission | X (Twitter) | White House ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 09 Apr 2025

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