The Virtual International Workshop, in the framework of H2020 Projects RECONNECT and GLOBE, aims at deepening our understanding of the complex and new set of challenges and opportunities faced by the EU’s international trade policy. Based on a call for papers, Workshop experts will analyse and reassess the EU as a global trade power and its ability to promote free trade alongside other strategic objectives, such as sustainable development and human rights, within a changed geo–economic context. Within RECONNECT, we aim to bring forward the conversation on the (perceived) legitimacy of EU trade policy and consider ways forward for the EU and the Member States to engage with citizens more effectively. In the context of the GLOBE project, we seek to understand the EU’s evolving role in an increasingly fragmented global trade governance regime, the global turn to protectionism, and the use of trade policy to meet ‘non–trade’ governance goals.