The European Union's (EU) Common Commercial Policy, or EU Trade Policy, is the policy whereby EU Member States delegate authority to the European Commission to negotiate their external trade relations, with the aim of increasing trade amongst themselves and their bargaining power vis-à-vis the rest of the world. The Common Commercial Policy is logically necessitated by the existence of the Customs Union, which in turn is also the foundation upon which the Single Market and Monetary Union were later established.

The six original member states had signed the 1957 Treaty of Rome, establishing the EU's forerunner, the European Economic Community, with the aim of facilitating greater trade and investment amongst themselves and strengthening their bargaining power with outside states. As signatories to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the removal of tariffs between them required the formation of a customs union, with a common external tariff applied by all members to their trade with the rest of the world. Customs unions of the past, such as the Southern African Customs Union, had relied upon a dominant partner, in that case South Africa, to set the external tariff vis-à-vis the rest of the world on behalf of junior states in the arrangement. In sharp contrast, the Community member states decided that they would jointly share in the management of a common external commercial policy by delegating authority to the commonly appointed supranational body of the European Commission, and scrutinising its decisions via the common institutions they had established – namely, the Council of Ministers, and later, additionally, the European Parliament.

The common commercial policy officially came into existence in July 1968 alongside the common external tariff, following the 12 year grace period for the 1957 Treaty of Rome's signatory states to align their trade policies. In practice, however, member states had sought to take advantage of their combined bargaining strength prior to this. This included the Commission concluding, a Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Association Agreements at the bilateral level, including, amongst others, with Israel in 1964, as well within the multilateral Kennedy Round of GATT negotiations, lasting from 1963 to 1967.

In the intervening decades of managing the EU's Common Commercial Policy, the European Commission has developed a deep expertise in international trade, with its Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade) becoming one of the best staffed, and most capable negotiating teams in the world. Along with the United States of America, it is one of few entities able to negotiate complex trade agreements in parallel. It has also played a key role in the development of global trade liberalisation, as a founding member of the World Trade Organisation, with former European Commissioner for Competition (1985–1989) Peter Sutherland being its founding Director General, and European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy (1999–2004) later following in his footsteps.

Article 207(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states:

"The common commercial policy shall be based on uniform principles, particularly with regard to changes in tariff rates, the conclusion of tariff and trade agreements relating to trade in goods and services, and the commercial aspects of intellectual property, foreign direct investment, the achievement of uniformity in measures of liberalisation, export policy and measures to protect trade such as those to be taken in the event of dumping or subsidies. The common commercial policy shall be conducted in the context of the principles and objectives of the Union's external action."

Article 63 states:

"...all restrictions on the movement of capital between the Member States and between Member States and third countries shall be prohibited."