The EU and the New Trade Bilateralism

The EU and the New Trade Bilateralism
Author: Finn Laursen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0429594593

International trade policy, including the trade policies of the European Union (EU), has become controversial in recent years. This book illuminates the politicised process of the EU’s contemporary trade negotiations. The book uses the notion of ‘contentious market regulation’ to examine contemporary EU Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs) with industrialised countries: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the USA (TTIP), the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada (CETA), the EU-South Korea Agreement (KOREU), and the EU’s agreement with Japan (EU-Japan). It also analyses cross-cutting issues affecting trade policy, such as business dimensions, social mobilisation, parliamentary assertion, and investment. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

EU Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property: For Better or Worse?

EU Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property: For Better or Worse?
Author: Josef Drexl
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2013-11-19
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3642390978

​​​​ ​This book focuses on a new generation of bilateral and regional agreements negotiated by the EU with developing countries and which include intellectual property (IP) provisions setting standards exceeding those of the TRIPS Agreement. The contributions critically analyse the IP standards found in these agreements; their potential for reforming the international IP system; the implications for the multilateral IP system and other areas of international law such as human rights; and the often neglected topic of implementing the IP obligations in these agreements.​

The Rise of Bilateralism

The Rise of Bilateralism
Author: Kenneth Heydon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

As multilateral negotiations become increasingly complex and protracted, preferential trade agreements have become the center of trade diplomacy, pushing beyond tariffs into deep integration and beyond regionalism into a web of bilateral deals, raising concerns about coercion by bigger players. This study examines American, European and Asian approaches to preferential trade agreements and their effects on trade, investment and economic welfare. It draws on theoretical works, but also examines the actual substance of agreements negotiated and envisaged.--Publisher's description.

The EU's Trade Strategy Shift from Multilateralism to Bilateralism. A Case Study on TTIP

The EU's Trade Strategy Shift from Multilateralism to Bilateralism. A Case Study on TTIP
Author: Benedikt Weingärtner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2017-06-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9783668471016

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: sehr gut, College of Europe, language: English, abstract: Foreign commercial policy represents a major domain of European integration and an exclusive policy competence for the European Union. The strategy, focus and practical approach of this EU trade policy has been continuously adapted to the new circumstances in an ever more globalised world economy. Thus, the EU uses its foreign trade policy not just for mere economic ends but also as a tool to strengthen its global political influence. Having been a champion of multilateral trade negotiations in the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) throughout the 1990s, the has EU changed this strategic orientation by the mid-2000s shifting its trade policy focus from a multilateral to a bilateral strategy and initiated preferential free trade agreements (FTA) with countries and regions all over the world. Among them, the one with the largest size was the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States of America, launched in 2013. Given the huge importance of the EU as a player in global trade, it seems relevant to examine from a political scientific perspective what have been the main reasons, drivers and motivations behind this enormous policy shift. I argue that external factors, domestic interests and institutional dynamics have collectively contributed to the reorientation of EU trade policy from multi- to bilateralism. I will test this hypothesis by means of three theoretical approaches: neorealism as a systemic theory, liberalism as a theory with a domestic focus and institutionalism to examine the role of the most important EU institution in trade policy, the European Commission. In order to get a more profound analysis of the main actors and motivations as driving forces of EU trade policy, I will furthermore use a case study on the, bo

The EU's bilateral Strategic Partnerships. Drivers or blockers of interregional free trade agreements?

The EU's bilateral Strategic Partnerships. Drivers or blockers of interregional free trade agreements?
Author: Josephine Susan Götze
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2018-07-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3668748373

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne (Lehrstuhl für internationale Politik und Außenpolitik), language: English, abstract: At the beginning of the 21st century, the international system is characterised by ever increasing interdependence, forcing actors to re-organise their relations. The new overlapping foreign policy instruments and cooperation formats on a bilateral, (sub)regional, interregional and multilateral level, in which states pursue different strategies for the assertion of interests, result in constellations that can be favourable but are often problematic for the conclusion of free trade agreements (FTAs). The EU, only recently having started to develop a common foreign policy and institutionalising relations with partners on a bilateral, interregional and multilateral level, is not free from this problem. Following an incoherent foreign trade policy, in which it shifts from bilateral (South Africa) to interregional (South East Asia) an mixed strategies (South America), the Union faces challenges in the conclusion of interregional FTAs. A current example is the ongoing bloc-to-bloc trade negotiations with the MERCOSUL (Mercado Comum do Sul in Portuguese or Common Market of the South in English) countries and the recent establishment of a bilateral SP with the MERCOSUL member Brazil that aims at cooperation on several topics, including trade. In the literature, attention has been paid to regionalisation and interregionalism, as well as the duality of the EU’s biregional relations and bilateral SPs creating chances and limits of global policy-making. But although trade has played a prominent role in the study of interregional relations, attempts to link the duality of biregional and bilateral approaches in EU foreign policy with foreign trade policy-making have been modest. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of the EU’s bilateral SP with third states on the Union’s ability to conclude FTAs with economic blocs the SP is integrated with. A single case study, focusing on the coexistence of interregional EU-MERCOSUL FTA negotiations and the bilateral SP between the EU and Brazil, analyses the SP’s value as an EU foreign policy instrument for the enhancement of negotiations on interregional FTAs.

Global Europe

Global Europe
Author: Boris Rigod
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

This article links recent developments in EU trade politics with the relevant rules governing the formulation of the common commercial policy. Its aim is to explain the domestic law regulating the EU's current external trade relations. Since 2006 EU trade policy has undergone a major shift from a policy of strict multilateralism towards selective bilateralism. To that end, the EU has launched a 'new generation' of free trade agreements (FTAs), which are today its principle means for opening foreign markets. Despite the fact that already many bilateral trade treaties are in place between the EU and third countries, these new agreements mark a change in EU trade policy in that, for the first time, purely commercial goals are pursued on a bilateral basis. This shift in policy is accompanied by a major treaty amendment: the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which has a great impact on EU external action in general and on trade policy in particular. One of the Treaty's main features is to link the Union's trade policy with its other foreign policies. In the context of the common commercial policy, this leads to some contradictions between the language of the law and actual EU trade policies. This paper identifies the relevant factors in the move towards bilateralism and provides an in depth analysis of EU trade policies in the face of these changes.

Efficient Multilateralism Or Bilateralism? The TTIP from an EU Trade Policy Perspective

Efficient Multilateralism Or Bilateralism? The TTIP from an EU Trade Policy Perspective
Author: Patricia Garcia-Duran
Publisher:
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

The EU bilateral trade strategy since 2006, including the TTIP, has been justified by the European Commission on the bases that deep and comprehensive trade agreements are compatible with efficient multilateralism. The Commission argument is the following: in a context marked by international supply-chains, preferential agreements that allow for progress on what has been achieved at the multilateral level (topics WTO) and in areas not already covered by the WTO (items WTO-X) may be considered as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block for multilateral liberalization. In other words, EU recent bilateral negotiations and agreements should be seen at worst as complementary to multilateral negotiations and at best as promoters.This paper challenges this argument by pointing out that the multilateralization potential of a bilateral agreement may not be a sufficient condition for compatibility between the bilateral and multilateral approaches. Their complementarity may also be influenced by what is happening at the multilateral level. Content analysis of a primary source of information - the Bridges Weekly reports - shows that there has been a change in EU actions in the Doha Round towards Brazil, India and China since 2009. Though the EU did not preclude the inclusion of these emerging powers in the high table of negotiations at any time and was in favour of the Bali agreement of 2013, its willingness to respond to their demands reached a plateau in 2008. That may signal a change in the nature of its bilateral strategy. Indeed, from 2006 until 2009 the EU may have sought bilateral partners among new important trade players (India, ASEAN and South Korea) to complement or even facilitate a multilateral agreement. Since then, however, the EU may have focused on reaching agreements with even more important trade partners: the old Quad members (Canada, Japan and the USA) as a way to ensure the market access opportunities that it cannot longer expect to obtain from the Doha Round. Following this analysis, the TTIP should be read, at least in the short time, as an example of efficient bilateralism.

Australia, the European Union and the New Trade Agenda

Australia, the European Union and the New Trade Agenda
Author: Annmarie Elijah
Publisher: ANU Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-06-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1760461148

Australia (together with New Zealand) is one of the few Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with which the EU does not have a comprehensive trade agreement. Australia and the EU are entering a new phase in the bilateral relationship, and the push towards a potential trade agreement has been steadily gaining momentum. This collection brings together diverse and deeply practical contributions to the forthcoming policy debate on the Australia–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), highlighting potential points of difficulty and possible gains from the agreement. This book makes two further contributions: it adds to the body of work reappraising the contemporary Australia–EU relationship; and provides a snapshot of current issues in trade policy—the ‘new trade agenda’—which is more complex and politically visible than ever. The issues confronting Australia and the EU in forthcoming negotiations are those confronting policy makers around the globe. They are testing public tolerance of decisions once viewed as dull and technocratic, and are redefining the academic treatment of trade policy. ‘… this book is especially important because it is talking about a very different type of trade agreement than the ones Australia has concluded recently with our major trading partners in East Asia. An agreement with the EU inevitably will focus on issues like services, investment, government procurement, and competition policy. These are major issues in their own right, are key parts of the new trade agenda, and are critical to Australia’s successful transition to a prosperous post–mining boom economy. In the absence of generalisable unilateral economic reform in this country, trade policy hopefully will provide an external source of pressure for reform. If this book adds to that pressure while also suggesting some of the tools needed for reform, it will have made a major contribution.’ Dr Mike Adams, Partner, Trading Nation Consulting