Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism

The European Union's trade strategy since 2006 has been justified on the assumption that deep and comprehensive bilateral trade agreements are at worst complementary to and at best promote multilateral negotiations. Drawing from the literature on the impact of the multilateral regime on the for...

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Autores: Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia, Eliasson, Leif Johan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/149285
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/149285
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Relacions bilaterals
Política comercial
Lliure comerç
Accions preferents
Països de la Unió Europea
Bilateral relations
Commercial policy
Free trade
Preferred stocks
European Union countries
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spelling Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting MultilateralismGarcia-Duran Huet, PatriciaEliasson, Leif JohanRelacions bilateralsPolítica comercialLliure comerçAccions preferentsPaïsos de la Unió EuropeaBilateral relationsCommercial policyFree tradePreferred stocksEuropean Union countriesThe European Union's trade strategy since 2006 has been justified on the assumption that deep and comprehensive bilateral trade agreements are at worst complementary to and at best promote multilateral negotiations. Drawing from the literature on the impact of the multilateral regime on the formation and objective of bilateral or regional agreements this article challenges the EU's position. While the European Commission claims that the WTO+ and WTO-X nature of the agreements determine the compatibility of bilateral and multilateral trade approaches, we argue that their complementarity is also impacted by what is happening at multilateral level. To this effect we introduce a new variable focusing on the level of difficulties in multilateral negotiations. While multilateral negotiations can spur new bilateral agreements as a strategy of promoting agreement at the multilateral level, bilateral agreements may instead become substitutes for multilateral agreements when the difficulties of achieving the latter become too severe. An empirical assessment indicates that the stalemate in the Doha Development Round post-2008 coincided with a shift in EU bilateral trade policy away from negotiations with emerging economies, to an intensified focus on large developed countries; agreements with the latter offered the EU the best alternatives to, and substitutes for, a multilateral agreement. JEL codes: F13; L81; O24: P33: Q17Addleton Academic Publishers2020202020182020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion26 p.application/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/149285Articles publicats en revistes (Història Econòmica, Institucions, Política i Economia Mundial)reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésReproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.22381/JSME6120181Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics , 2018, vol. 6, num. 1, p. 7-32https://doi.org/10.22381/JSME6120181(c) Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia et al., 2018info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:2445/1492852026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
title Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
spellingShingle Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia
Relacions bilaterals
Política comercial
Lliure comerç
Accions preferents
Països de la Unió Europea
Bilateral relations
Commercial policy
Free trade
Preferred stocks
European Union countries
title_short Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
title_full Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
title_fullStr Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
title_full_unstemmed Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
title_sort Squaring the Circle: Assessing whether the European Union's Pursuit of Bilateral Trade Agreements Is Compatible with Promoting Multilateralism
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia
Eliasson, Leif Johan
author Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia
author_facet Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia
Eliasson, Leif Johan
author_role author
author2 Eliasson, Leif Johan
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Relacions bilaterals
Política comercial
Lliure comerç
Accions preferents
Països de la Unió Europea
Bilateral relations
Commercial policy
Free trade
Preferred stocks
European Union countries
topic Relacions bilaterals
Política comercial
Lliure comerç
Accions preferents
Països de la Unió Europea
Bilateral relations
Commercial policy
Free trade
Preferred stocks
European Union countries
description The European Union's trade strategy since 2006 has been justified on the assumption that deep and comprehensive bilateral trade agreements are at worst complementary to and at best promote multilateral negotiations. Drawing from the literature on the impact of the multilateral regime on the formation and objective of bilateral or regional agreements this article challenges the EU's position. While the European Commission claims that the WTO+ and WTO-X nature of the agreements determine the compatibility of bilateral and multilateral trade approaches, we argue that their complementarity is also impacted by what is happening at multilateral level. To this effect we introduce a new variable focusing on the level of difficulties in multilateral negotiations. While multilateral negotiations can spur new bilateral agreements as a strategy of promoting agreement at the multilateral level, bilateral agreements may instead become substitutes for multilateral agreements when the difficulties of achieving the latter become too severe. An empirical assessment indicates that the stalemate in the Doha Development Round post-2008 coincided with a shift in EU bilateral trade policy away from negotiations with emerging economies, to an intensified focus on large developed countries; agreements with the latter offered the EU the best alternatives to, and substitutes for, a multilateral agreement. JEL codes: F13; L81; O24: P33: Q17
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018
2020
2020
2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/149285
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/149285
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.22381/JSME6120181
Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics , 2018, vol. 6, num. 1, p. 7-32
https://doi.org/10.22381/JSME6120181
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv (c) Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia et al., 2018
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv (c) Garcia-Duran Huet, Patricia et al., 2018
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv 26 p.
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Addleton Academic Publishers
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Addleton Academic Publishers
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Història Econòmica, Institucions, Política i Economia Mundial)
reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,81155

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