Multiple Principals’ Preferences, Types of Control Mechanisms and Agent’s Discretion in Trade Negotiations

Abstract

The European Parliament is now granted joint powers with the Council of the EU on trade policy issues. In this chapter, I explore how changing the delegation structure that now relies on multiple principals shapes the Commission’s discretion in the negotiation of trade agreements. I argue that an agent’s amount of discretion can be high or low depending on the preference heterogeneity between multiple principals and the type of control mechanisms available to principals during the negotiation process. To illustrate the argument made, this chapter analyzes two case studies of the negotiation of free trade agreements with South Korea and with Singapore.