scholarly journals Towards Explaining Varying Degrees of Politicization of EU Trade Agreement Negotiations

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk De Bièvre ◽  
Arlo Poletti

Over the last decade, European Union (EU) trade agreement negotiations in the form of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada have been strongly contested. By contrast, many other EU trade negotiations have sailed on with far less politicization, or barely any at all. In this contribution, we assess a series of plausible explanation for these very varying degrees of politicization across EU trade agreement negotiations—conceived of as the combination of polarization of opinions, salience given to them in public debate, and the expansion of the number of societal actors involved therein. Through a review of existing explanations, we show how each of these explanations faces a set of challenges. In the third section, we argue it is useful to conceive of these existing explanations as structural background conditions enabling agency on the part of interest group and civil society organizations. We therefore close by sketching how literature on the relationship between interest group mobilization and public opinion could inform further comparative research on trade policy negotiations, and on politicization of EU policy making in general.

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyeonho Hahm ◽  
Thomas König ◽  
Moritz Osnabrügge ◽  
Elena Frech

AbstractWhat type of trade agreement is the public willing to accept? Instead of focusing on individual concerns about market access and trade barriers, we argue that specific treaty design and, in particular, the characteristics of the dispute settlement mechanism, play a critical role in shaping public support for trade agreements. To examine this theoretical expectation, we conduct a conjoint experiment that varies diverse treaty-design elements and estimate preferences over multiple dimensions of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) based on a nationally representative sample in Germany. We find that compared to other alternatives, private arbitration, known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), generates strong opposition to the trade agreement. As the single most important factor, this effect of dispute settlement characteristic is strikingly large and consistent across individuals’ key attributes, including skill levels, information, and national sentiment, among others.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110615
Author(s):  
Cecilia Santilli ◽  
Roberto Scaramuzzino

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between individual leaders’ career trajectories and organizational structure and identity in Italian civil society organizations (CSOs) active at national level. The analysis in this qualitative study draws on two sets of data, semi-structured interviews with leaders on their career trajectories and their understanding of what it takes to become a leader of a CSO and short biographies of leaders’ career trajectories. Three main representational logics are idenitified: within: multi-level, within: member-organization, and outside: supporting organization. The two first logics are based on a trajectory within the organizations either departing from the local and regional levels of the same organizations or within one or more member organizations. The third logic is based on a trajectory outside the organization that is marked by the ideological affiliation of the president through leading positions in other organizations within the same movement or field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Nadia Naim

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP). The EU and the USA are negotiating the TTIP, a trade agreement that aims to remove trade barriers across different economic sectors to increase trade between the EU and the USA. The TTIP will have spill over effects on the MENA region, the GCC, Australia and the Asian sub-continent, as it raises key questions for intellectual property and international trade agreements. For instance, will the USA and EU be on an equal footing or will one triumph over the other, will third party countries like the GCC states be expected to adopt new standards. Design/methodology/approach The research design is a paper and online data collection method to find literature to date on intellectual property law development in the GCC states in relation to the three research objectives as set out above. The literature is the population, and this could prove problematic. Different databases have been used to cover all sources where data can be found. Findings As the EU-USA TTIP is aiming to conclude by the end of 2015, the GCC has an opportunity to reassess its relationship with both the EU and GCC. Up until now, the GCC was able to enter into negotiations with the EU and USA relatively independently. However, where the EU and USA can agree, there will be a harmonisation of regulations. This therefore has repercussions for the GCC. The TTIP has three main aims: to increase trade and investment through market access, increase employment and competitiveness and create a harmonised approach to global trade. To harmonise global trade, the EU and USA aim to harmonise their intellectual property rights through an intellectual property rights chapter that deals specifically with enhancing protection and recognition for geographical indications, build on TRIPS and patentability. Research limitations/implications This study is non-empirical. Originality/value The TTIP will have spill over effects for the GCC, as it has yet to finalise the EU-GCC free trade agreement and USA-GCC framework agreement. The power dynamics between the USA and EU will be a deciding factor on the intellectual property chapter in the TTIP in terms of what the provisions for intellectual property will look like and what powers will be available to investors to bring investor-state-dispute settlement claims against foreign countries.


Author(s):  
Amanda M Countryman ◽  
Andrew Muhammad

AbstractImport policies in the European Union have greatly restricted beef imports from all sources. The presence of a binding tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on beef imports in tandem with sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions on biotechnological food products specifically inhibit beef imports from the United States and limit market access in the EU. Potential passage of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership may lead to a loosening of non-tariff measures (NTM) that serve as technical barriers to trade and give rise to the coexistence of hormone and non-hormone beef products in the EU marketplace. This research assesses the potential changes in import demand for beef under a trade agreement that allows for imports of conventional beef as well as an expansion of the existing TRQ in the EU beef import market. Results confirm that EU imports of beef will increase from all sources with an expansion of the TRQ and that elimination of the NTM related to beef production practices leads to an increase in competiveness of U.S. and Australian beef in the EU import market.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
Marie-Eve Arbour

The scandal involving the Volkswagen group broke out last Fall, at the dawn of the very delicate UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) held in Paris, and the posting of an unofficial version of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This so, just when a leaked version Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) ran through the veins of the Internet and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was just about to be signed in New Zealand, fostering market integration by pushing further national treatment and mutual recognition, against the backdrop -albeit one small step at a time- of an increasing demand for environmental protection through the setting, among other regulation tools, of emission thresholds.


2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 91-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Díaz-Andreu

In this article Childe's commitment to internationalism and, in particular, to the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (CISPP) is analysed. Personal correspondence between Childe and Myres and, to a lesser extent, other archaeologists, is used as the basis to consider the different stages in Childe's involvement in the CISPP. After an overview of the emergence of international congresses, the article looks at the formation of an interest group that resulted in the creation of the CISPP. The challenges brought by Nazi Germany to the international scene, and to Childe's positioning in it, are also explored. The article then examines his role in the revival of the international congress during and after the Second World War and his lesser commitment from the third conference in 1950. Finally, some comments are made on the value of archives for the history of archaeology, on the lack of connection between Childe's internationalism and Marxism, and on the need to further investigate the relationship between Childe and Myres.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Gheyle ◽  
Ferdi De Ville

Transparency has been a central issue in the debate regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), especially on the side of the European Union (EU). The lack of transparency in the negotiating process has been one of the main criticisms of civil society organizations (CSOs). The European Commission (EC) has tried to gain support for the negotiations through various ‘transparency initiatives’. Nonetheless, criticism by CSOs with regard to TTIP in general and the lack of transparency in specific remained prevalent. In this article, we explain this gap between various transparency initiatives implemented by the EC in TTIP and the expectations on the side of European CSOs. We perform a content analysis of position papers on transparency produced by CSOs, mainly in response to a European Ombudsman consultation, complemented by a number of official documents and targeted interviews. We find that the gap between the TTIP transparency initiatives and the expectations of CSOs can be explained by different views on what constitutes legitimate trade governance, and the role of transparency, participation, and accountability herein.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Felbermayr ◽  
Rahel Aichele

Negotiations towards a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and the US have proven extremely controversial in Germany. This is puzzling, because the US has been Germany’s largest export market for years, at least when measured in value added terms. However, realized trade flows substantially fall short from the friction-free benchmark. The simulation of a quantitative trade theory model, which assumes that a TTIP would be as effective as the average existing deep trade agreement, could lead to an increase in real per capita income by about 2.5% in both the US and Germany. Gains in Germany would be largely driven by higher value added in the automotive industry, while the agricultural and the chemicals sector would lose. However, resistance against TTIP has not been shaped by classical political economy motives along sectoral lines, but by wide-spread fears of a regulatory race-to-the-bottom.


2017 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 44-46
Author(s):  
Donald McRae

In the last several years there has been a trajectory of negotiating more and more comprehensive trade and investment agreements—the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and perhaps the most comprehensive, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But that trend may have come to a halt with the difficulties over CETA ratification, the apparent end of the TTIP, and the uncertain future of the TPP.


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