THE ROLE OF EU INSTITUTIONS IN COMMON TRADE POLICY: AN ASSESSMENT ON EU-CANADA COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC AND TRADE AGREEMENT

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 83 - 104, 10.01.2020

Esra Uyar Okcu Fabio Franchino İbrahim Alper Arısoy

https://doi.org/10.18825/iremjournal.615846

Abstract

What are the roles of the European Union (EU)’s
main institutions in common trade policy? To address this question, this study
uses a political-economic approach. The positions of the European Commission,
Council of the European Union and European Parliament on EU-Canada
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are examined. The study uses
content analysis as a research methodology, based on a categorization of values
and economic interests projected by the EU’s contemporary trade strategy “Trade
for All”. Differently from previous studies which use a political-economic
approach to analyze the EU’s external relations with developing countries, this
article makes a contribution to EU trade policy literature by combining a
political-economy perspective with an institutional one to examine a EU trade
agreement signed with a highly industrialized country. Within this context, the
findings reveal that the Parliament and Council are more value-oriented, than
economic interest-oriented. The Commission is instead found slightly more
economic interest-oriented than value-oriented. However, the priorities of
three institutions do not diverge significantly in terms of political economy.
Each institution manages to impose its own priorities on both the
(value-related) normative and (interest-related) material parts of CETA and
agrees on producing a neoliberal economic outcome.

Keywords

European Union, EU trade, EU institutions, CETA, political economy

Thanks

Esra Uyar Okcu gratefully acknowledges the support by Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme for this research.

THE ROLE OF EU INSTITUTIONS IN COMMON TRADE POLICY: AN ASSESSMENT ON EU-CANADA COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC AND TRADE AGREEMENT

Abstract

What are the roles of the European Union (EU)’s
main institutions in common trade policy? To address this question, this study
uses a political-economic approach. The positions of the European Commission,
Council of the European Union and European Parliament on EU-Canada
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are examined. The study uses
content analysis as a research methodology, based on a categorization of values
and economic interests projected by the EU’s contemporary trade strategy “Trade
for All”. Differently from previous studies which use a political-economic
approach to analyze the EU’s external relations with developing countries, this
article makes a contribution to EU trade policy literature by combining a
political-economy perspective with an institutional one to examine a EU trade
agreement signed with a highly industrialized country. Within this context, the
findings reveal that the Parliament and Council are more value-oriented, than
economic interest-oriented. The Commission is instead found slightly more
economic interest-oriented than value-oriented. However, the priorities of
three institutions do not diverge significantly in terms of political economy.
Each institution manages to impose its own priorities on both the
(value-related) normative and (interest-related) material parts of CETA and
agrees on producing a neoliberal economic outcome. 

Keywords

European Union, EU trade, EU institutions, CETA, political economy

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