The EU is a social market economy and really does not believe in what one would call “free trade”—something that Marx decried, for the record. The problem is a free market trading with unfree markets, which will erode the freedom of the free market.
But it is an organization founded on Free Trade and Free Trade is objective #1 of the EU
No free trade agreement, deal, pact, really provides free trade. Even the World Trade Organization allows the EU and other nations to tariff via the Value Added Tax
Right now, Obama is working to pass an US-EU free trade agreement. If it passes...expect those EU rules coming here