The Trade Development Nexus In The European Union

This volume offers new perspectives on the evolution of the trade–development nexus in the European Union against dramatic changes in the international context. Without disregarding them, it seeks to go beyond the controversial and extensively researched Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). In particular, it focuses on the reform of the Generalised System of Preferences, the negotiation of various Preferential Trade Agreements, the application of trade sanctions, the allegedly ambitious agendas on decent work, Aid for Trade and aid untying, and the implications of the changing balance of power in global economic relations. Taking diverse approaches and, at times, reaching different conclusions, contributors directly or indirectly address one or more of the three general themes of the book: differentiation, coherence, and norms. This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary Politics.

The principle of policy coherence has been the object of a contentious debate in the European Union’s external relations, though discussions have been mainly limited to its foreign policy and its ability to speak with one voice in the international arena. Despite being institutionalised in the Treaty of Maastricht, policy coherence for development (PCD), which implies taking into account the needs and interests of developing countries in non-aid policies, failed to make headway in the European Union, remaining the unheeded concern of some NGOs and a small group of Member States. A change of direction occurred in the early 2000s when the European Commission, taking advantage of a number of favourable conditions and using an astute strategy, managed to set an ambitious agenda for the European Union. This volume analyses the linkages between aid and various non-aid policies, namely trade, agriculture, fisheries, security, migration, and the social dimension of globalisation. Its aim is to shed new light on the EU’s policy-making process, by looking at the nexus between various policy sub-systems, and on the role that the EU wants to play in the international arena, by looking at the impact of its policies on international development. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

The European Union's foreign policy and its international role are increasingly being contested both globally and at home. At the global level, a growing number of states are now challenging the Western-led liberal order defended by the EU. Large as well as smaller states are vying for more leeway to act out their own communitarian principles on and approaches to sovereignty, security and economic development. At the European level, a similar battle has begun over principles, values and institutions. The most vocal critics have been anti-globalization movements, developmental NGOs, and populist political parties at both extremes of the left-right political spectrum. This book, based on ten case studies, explores some of the most important current challenges to EU foreign policy norms, whether at the global, glocal or intra-EU level. The case studies cover contestation of the EU's fundamental norms, organizing principles and standardized procedures in relation to the abolition of the death penalty, climate, Responsibility to Protect, peacebuilding, natural resource governance, the International Criminal Court, lethal autonomous weapons systems, trade, the security-development nexus and the use of consensus on foreign policy matters in the European Parliament. The book also theorizes the current norm contestation in terms of the extent to, and conditions under which, the EU foreign policy is being put to the test.

In The EU and the Security-Development Nexus, Hans Merket unravels the long-standing commitment of the European Union (EU) to integrate its policies across the security-development nexus. By fine-tuning the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) – which includes the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) – with its development cooperation policies, the EU aims to end the devastating vicious cycle of insecurity and poverty in fragile states. This book undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the EU’s words and deeds that result from this engagement across its entire policy, and its institutional and legal system. This gives a complete picture of the significance, impact, limits, potential and remaining challenges of this policy commitment, and simultaneously elucidates the practical impact of Treaty reform in the area of EU external action.

This timely volume advances an alternative set of inter-related, interdisciplinary perspectives and debates which contribute to overlapping genres and discourses on development economics and trade relations between the EU and Africa.

Advancing a constructivist conceptual approach, this book explains the surprising outcome of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP countries). Despite the EU’s huge market power, it had limited success with the EPAs; an outcome that confounds materialist narratives equating trade power with market size. Why was the EU unable to fully realise its prospectus for trade and regulatory liberalisation through the EPA negotiations? Emphasising the role of social legitimacy in asymmetrical North–South trade negotiations, Murray-Evans sets the EPAs within the broader context of an institutionally complex global trade regime and stresses the agency of both weak and strong actors in contesting trade rules and practices across multilateral, regional and bilateral negotiating settings. Empirical chapters approach the EPA process from different institutional angles to explain and map the genesis, design, promotion and ultimately limited impact of the EU’s ambitious prospectus for the EPAs. This volume will be particularly relevant to students and scholars of international trade and development and the EU as an international actor, as well as those researching international political economy, African politics and international trade law.

The Handbook on the EU and International Trade presents a multidisciplinary overview of the major perspectives, actors and issues in contemporary EU trade relations. Changes in institutional dynamics, Brexit, the politicisation of trade, competing foreign policy agendas, and adaptation to trade patterns of value chains and the digital and knowledge economy are reshaping the European Union's trade policy. The authors tackle how these challenges frame the aims, processes and effectiveness of trade policy making in the context of the EU's trade relations with developed, developing and emerging states in the global economy.

This comprehensive and clearly written textbook offers a long-awaited introduction to the trade policy of the European Union, the world's largest trading entity. Gstöhl and De Bièvre provide a comprehensive assessment of the common commercial policy, its relationship with other policies, like development policy, and of the EU's multi-level policy-making and international bargaining in this area. As well as providing a broad overview of the nature and development of the EU's trade policy, the authors analyse how relevant institutions and decision-making processes are organized and how this set-up fosters particular policy outcomes. Gstöhl and De Bièvre show how the thorough and critical study of EU trade policy can be conducted from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, enabling the student to tackle the ever-evolving political, economic, and legal questions that arise. Given the accessible writing, this book is recommended for both undergraduate and Master's students studying the EU and Europe in their Politics, International Relations, Economics or Law degrees, as well as those focusing on international trade policy.

Recoge: 1. Introduction: How the EU integrates trade into its development policy and programmes - 2. Silk weaving in Cambodia: from village tradition to global market - 3. An injection of help to small business exporters from Peru - 4. Namibia on the global stage: capacity building for trade - 5. Revitalising the vanilla sector in Madagascar: from the plantation to the marketplace - 6. Helping Jamaican firms buck the economic downturn - 7. Making the most of WTO accession: preparing government and business in Vietnam - 8. Supporting Senegalese business: from informal trading to ISO 9001 certification - 9. Raising hygiene standards in Cape Verde's fisheries: ensurung access to the EU market - 10. Diversifying Zambia's economic base: promoting non-traditional exports - 11. Rescuing Egypts potato exports: defeating the brown rot pest - 12. The fruits of black's economic empowerment in the Eastern Cape.