Regional mobilization in international trade policy: The US states in transatlantic trade negotiations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ever since the negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), noncentral governments in the US have been clamouring for a bigger say in US trade policy making. Yet, constitutional and practical constraints remain for states to represent their trade policy interests. To investigate these constraints and how states try to overcome them, this contribution considers the case of the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US. I analyze how states formulated and represented their interests on the TTIP. While overall state interest representation on the TTIP was low, I find various avenues in which states mobilized, mostly in a coordinated setting including the federal government and mostly driven by progressive-leaning state legislators with a background in international trade. The analysis of state interest representation on the TTIP adds to the literature on noncentral actors in international trade policy making.