Construction European Union trade policy: a global idea of Europe

"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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Siles-Brügge, Gabriel
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Basingstoke 2014
Palgrave Macmillan
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19118250124919364329-Construction-european-union-tr.htm
Description
Summary:"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."
Physical Description:XIV, 258 p.
Paper