Constructing European Union Trade Policy [electronic resource] : A Global Idea of Europe /
Siles-Brügge, Gabriel.author.
With the stagnation of the Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade liberalisation is increasingly undertaken through free trade agreements. Gabriel Siles-Brügge examines the EU's decision following the 2006 'Global Europe' strategy to negotiate such agreements with emerging economies. Eschewing the purely materialist explanations prominent in the field, he develops a novel constructivist argument to highlight the role of language and ideas in shaping EU trade policy. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentary analysis, Siles-Brügge shows how EU trade policymakers have privileged the interests of exporters to the detriment of import-competing groups, creating an ideational imperative for market-opening. Even during the on-going economic crisis the overriding mantra has been that the EU's future well-being depends on its ability to compete in global markets. The increasingly neoliberal orientation of EU trade policy has also had important consequences for its economic diplomacy with the developing economies of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states.
Description based upon print version of record.
COVER; Series Page; Constructing EuropeanUnion Trade Policy; Contents; List of Tables and Figures; List of Abbreviations; Acknowledgements; 1: Introduction ; The (overstated) role of institutions in EU trade policy; An institutionalist history of EU trade policy; The limitations of institutionalist explanations; The argument: Trade is what you make of it; Outline of the book; Sources; 2: Trade Is What You Make of It: The Social Construction of EU Commercial Policy ; The rationalist IPE literature on preferential trade; Combining 'systemic' and 'domestic' explanations of regionalism
A 'combined' IPE perspective on North-South regionalismThe social construction of neoliberal rationality; Why do ideas matter? A 'critical' perspective on neoliberal rationality; The intellectual basis of neoliberalism in trade: Neoclassical trade theory; The discursive construction of external economic constraints; Augmenting the study of economic discourse; Conclusion; 3: Charting the Rise of 'Global Europe' ; From 'embedded liberalism' to neoliberalism in EU trade policy: A defensive participant in global trade turned proactive multila
Exporters and the discourse of external competitive threatBusiness shifts its position5; Tracing business input into 'Global Europe'; The discursive dimension to business lobbying: From multilateralism to constructing an 'external threat'; The EU's bilateral services and investment agenda; DG Trade and the strategic use of discourse: 'A global idea of Europe'; The beliefs of policymakers in DG Trade; Rendering the (contingent) process of trade liberalisation (discursively) necessary
The 'reflexive' dimension to business and Commission discourse: Exporters as both shapers of discourse and ideational resourceConclusion; 4: Resisting 'Protectionism': The EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement ; A background to the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement: Its likely distributive consequences and systemic context; Negotiating the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement; Key market access gains in services; The discursive battle over the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement; Overcoming opposition from Member States, interest groups and the European Parliament11; Conclusion
5: 'Global Europe' and the Economic Partnership Agreements Charting the convergence of the EU's 'developmental' and 'commercial' trade agendas; The Economic Partnership Agreements and the shift towards bilateralism; Services and investment provisions in the EU-Caribbean Forum Economic Partnership Agreement; The drivers of convergence: Interest groups and neoliberal economic discourse; The entwined neoliberal discourses of 'competitiveness' and 'development'; Responding to the critics: Economic rhetoric and the Economic Partnership Agreements; The limitations of economic rhetoric; Conclusion
6: 'Global Europe' during the Crisis: Reciprocity and the Political Limits to Liberalisation
Includes bibliographical references and index.
With the stagnation of the Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade liberalisation is increasingly undertaken through free trade agreements. Gabriel Siles-Brügge examines the EU's decision following the 2006 'Global Europe' strategy to negotiate such agreements with emerging economies. Eschewing the purely materialist explanations prominent in the field, he develops a novel constructivist argument to highlight the role of language and ideas in shaping EU trade policy. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentary analysis, Siles-Brügge shows how EU trade policymakers have privileged the interests of exporters to the detriment of import-competing groups, creating an ideational imperative for market-opening. Even during the on-going economic crisis the overriding mantra has been that the EU's future well-being depends on its ability to compete in global markets. The increasingly neoliberal orientation of EU trade policy has also had important consequences for its economic diplomacy with the developing economies of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states.
Political economy.
Economic policy.
International relations.
European Union.
Political science.
International economics.
International Political Economy.
Economic Policy.
International Relations.
European Union Politics.
Political Science.
International Economics.