The new strategy also called for a closer relationship with strategic partners such as the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Brazil to better facilitate trade and investment.

The EU already has structured dialogues on trade and regulatory issues with China and the United States, its two largest markets.

When deepening trade relations with strategic partners, the main focus would be on tackling non-tariff barriers, the commission said.

The EU is currently negotiating free trade agreements with India and several other trading partners. Besides the bilateral approach, the 27-member bloc is also pushing for a conclusion of the Doha Round of global trade talks.

The commission said it aimed to conclude the Doha Round of global trade talks by the end of 2011.

The commission has said in estimates that completing these bilateral and global trade deals would increase the EU's GDP by more than one percent per year, create more jobs and help it exit the crisis.

With a new mandate, the commission said it stood ready to start negotiating comprehensive investment provisions with some of the EU's key trading partners.

The Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December, gave the EU the role to negotiate future deals on how EU investments in foreign countries are protected and how to improve conditions for making such investment.

Previously, the EU member states built only a common trade policy, while investment remained within the national competence.

The EU is now the world's largest trading bloc. It exported goods and services worth 1.6 trillion euros (2.2 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, equivalent to 13 percent of EU's GDP, while the EU imports were about the same, according to EU figures.

The 27-member bloc is also the greatest source of foreign direct investment abroad, and it attracted 221.7 billion euros (308.5 billion dollars) of foreign direct investment in 2009, accounting for 29 percent of the global total.

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