The EU has exclusive competence to pursue common commercial policy on behalf of its member countries as it does for common monetary policy and common agricultural policy. The foundation of the common commercial policy is fact that the EU is based on supranational economic integration. In concrete terms, the common commercial policy constitutes a part of economic integration that prescribes that products imported from extra-EU region to intra-EU region through the due course have right to receive equal treatment as produced in a member country. Since the EU has independent authority to pursue commercial policy, there has constantly been serious debate on distribution between the community and its member states. This is because the more the scope of common commercial policy is extended, the more the economic sovereignty of member states becomes constrained. In the initial stage, the EU's competence was limited to trade of goods. After the Uruguay Round, however, it has come to include intellectual property rights and the service sector. (The rest is omitted.)