Partnership Negotiations Research Articles

The welfare effects of partial tariff reduction in Japan

When some sectors are more heavily protected than others, will removing lightly protected sectors’ tariffs improve welfare? We argue that this second-best question is highly relevant in Japan, wherein its government made some exceptions to the across-the-board tariff elimination during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. We have calibrated a specific factor model with multiple import-competing sectors to the 2015 Japanese economy and conducted some counterfactual exercises. Although the partial tariff removal policy in question barely affects Japanese welfare, when it is combined with the agricultural sector tariff removal (across-the-board tariff elimination) the effect on Japanese welfare is made positive. Furthermore, the positive welfare effect more than doubles if it is combined with the removal of the subsidy in the agricultural sector. Both findings indicate the severity of the existing distortion stemming from the Japanese agricultural sector protection as well as the importance of lowering the protection to render the nonagricultural sector tariff removal meritorious.

Indonesia and ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023: Leading the Region in Strengthening Relations with China

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, plays a crucial role in the region and contributes significantly to the regional bloc's stability, economic growth, and diplomatic initiatives. The archipelago serves as a pivotal anchor within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), stipulating political leadership and strategic direction over the years. Indonesia fosters trade and investment within the region, as seen from Indonesia's role in completing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiation, the largest free trade agreement in the world involving ASEAN and several trading partners such as China, Japan and South Korea (The ASEAN Secretariat, 2023). Indonesia promotes dialogue and cooperation to address regional challenges such as trans-boundary issues, security concerns, and environmental sustainability. Indonesia is also currently one of China’s most important partners in Southeast Asia. China is now Indonesia's largest trading partner and export market, with China's official data showing that in 2022 the bilateral trade reached $149.1 billion, up 19.8 percent year-on-year. In the same year, China was the second-largest source of investment in Indonesia in 2022, with $8.2 billion (Duqiang, 2023). In addition, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has played a major role in supporting infrastructure development in Indonesia. Both nations continue to engage in high-level diplomatic dialogue and seek common ground on various regional and global issues. This article attempts to show the role that Indonesia plays as it continues to show the way for other ASEAN countries to navigate economic challenges and, at the same time, forge stronger ties with China. This article also examines the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and China and how it affects Indonesia’s capability to lead other ASEAN countries, especially after Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023.

Has the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations impacted on tourism flows of member countries?

PurposeUsing panel data for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member states, the present study explored the role of RCEP negotiations on tourism development.Design/methodology/approachA dynamic econometric model, namely the panel autoregressive dynamic lag model (PARDL) has been used. To test for panel causality, Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality tests were used.FindingsThrough the use of a dynamic econometric model, namely the PARDL, the results show that the RCEP negotiations, growth rates, as well as international trade contribute towards tourism development. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality tests confirm the existence of a bidirectional causal link between tourism development and RCEP negotiations. Finally, a unidirectional causal link is observed between tourism development and international trade.Originality/valueThis existing evidence on the topic seems to be very scant and limited to specific regions and particular regional trade agreements. This paper thus fills an important gap in the literature by advancing evidence about the effects of the RCEP on international tourism flows across member countries.

Philosophy and discourse of war: conflict of worlds as the limit of Jurgen Habermas’s communicative theory

The article is a philosophical response to the oped of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas Krieg und Empörung, published by him in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in April 2022. The oped demonstrates the philosopher’s view on ideological disputes and political debates or “indignation” (Empörung) in public sphere in both Germany and the EU concerning an attempt to develop a unanimous policy to help Ukraine with weapons against Russia’s military aggression. The authors presume that Habermas published the accountable message of a responsible citizen that means it should be also taken as based on his theoretical achievements. The article consists of two parts. The first part sets out the main arguments of the philosopher’s newspaper article, which ends with a recommendation of compromise and partnership negotiations with the aggressor de facto due to the losses of Ukraine. The second part is an attempt by the authors to clarify the main preconditions and premises of Habermas’s communicative philosophy, which demonstrate the fundamental limitation of its explanatory power for this type of radical dissent, which is war. First of all, the authors suggest, it is the idea of pacification in interethnic relations, which forms the intellectual mood after World War II and finds its philosophical expression in the discovery of a priori foundations of understanding (Apel, Habermas) and ideas of developing formal pragmatics of communication. Attention to the latter allows the authors to demonstrate how consistent analysis of a priori (counterfactual) conditions of communication is considered by Habermas primarily in the historical perspective of positive dimensions of social integration - democratic equality, freedom, justice for participants of communicative interaction. The article concludes with a detailed analysis of the significance of the concept “lifeworld” as one of the central concepts within communicative theory and an analogue of “form of life” and “culture”. The authors argue the idea of perspective creating a common lifeworld for all in the processes of communication is fundamental to the works of the philosopher. The article concludes that the regulative idea of the single world as a basic ontological assumption of communicative theory does limit its explanatory capacity in terms of a war situation as a clash of different cultural worlds.

Means of Influence, the Joint-Decision Trap and Multilevel Trade Negotiations: Ontario and Québec and the Renegotiation of NAFTA Compared

Trade negotiations address issues that are increasingly pertinent to substate governments, leading many to insist on being included in trade negotiations. The increasingly multilevel nature of trade negotiations and the influence of substate governments in the negotiation process is beginning to attract theoretical attention. The Canadian case is interesting here as it allows us to test two recent theories about the role of substate governments in trade negotiations. Canadian provinces are increasingly included in trade negotiations despite the fact that they do not have veto power and the Senate of Canada does not represent their interests. The Canadian case demonstrates that, contrary to the means-of-influence theory, inclusion in the negotiation process is more important than formal constitutional powers. Moreover, contrary to a recent theory that questions the joint-decision trap perspective, in the case of the NAFTA renegotiation, granting veto power to the provinces would likely have been a major problem for Canadian negotiators. This article compares the role Ontario and Québec played in the NAFTA renegotiations with their role in CETA and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) negotiations. Trade negotiation, federalism, means of influence, joint-decision trap, Canadian provinces, Ontario, Québec, NAFTA renegotiations, CETA, CPTPP

FinTechs and the financial industry: partnerships for success

PurposeThe challenge of innovation and digitalization leads financial institutions and FinTechs to cooperate with each other. Therefore, it becomes more and more important to understand the why of the partnering, as success depends on it. The purpose of this paper is to derive most important common and specific strategic cooperation rationales between financial institutions and FinTechs, which serves as a value adding guideline for both parties.Design/methodology/approachThis study first derives from a literature review the collaborative motives between FinTechs and financial institutions. Based on these findings, eight in-depth and semi-structured interviews with experts were conducted, providing insights as well as grading the motivesFindingsStarting from the FinTech perspective, the most relevant partnership motives were found to be financial return, reputation and credibility. The access primarily drives these motives to additional customer acquisition channels and a reputational quality signaling of the FinTech products or services within the market. On the other hand, the most critical incumbent motives were shown to be customer satisfaction and business model innovation. From a corporate perspective, these motives mainly incorporate the opportunity to challenge, pivot and expand the existing business model while increasing customer satisfaction via additional innovative products or services. Starting from the FinTech perspective, the most relevant partnership motives were found to be financial return, reputation and credibility. The access primarily drives these motives to additional customer acquisition channels and a reputational quality signaling of the FinTech products or services within the market. On the other hand, the most critical incumbent motives were shown to be customer satisfaction and business model innovation. From a corporate perspective, these motives mainly incorporate the opportunity to challenge, pivot and expand the existing business model while increasing customer satisfaction via additional innovative products or services.Research limitations/implicationsFrom a thematical limitation perspective, the interviewee sample size is comparatively moderate-low and the candidates are primarily active on European markets. Therefore, the analyzed motives are limited to European strategic preferences and do not reflect all intercontinental collaboration positions. Further, the strategic collaboration rationale evaluation framework is limited to the financial industry. Thus, this framework cannot be directly applied to other sectors or even further startup segments within the economy.Practical implicationsFrom a practical perspective, this study provides a top-level overview and guideline of the least and most relevant collaboration motives from a FinTech and financial incumbent point of view. It supports both cooperative parties to improve potential strategic partnership negotiation outcomes.Originality/valueIn contrast to the previous, mainly bank-focused partnership research approaches, this study provides broader collaborative insight within the financial industry by gathering interview data from FinTech, insurance, bank and asset management experts. Furthermore, the derived framework has a practical usage in the collaboration process.

Riding the Indo-Pacific Wave: India–ASEAN Partnership Sans RCEP

India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) partnership began in the early 1990s mainly in the economic domain. Reeling from a major internal crisis, India wanted to tap onto the region’s economic vibrancy to strengthen its own waning economy. Since then, amidst India’s domestic constraints, economic ties have largely sustained the India–ASEAN partnership on a steady course. India’s withdrawal from the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations in 2019, therefore, was an important inflection point in the partnership. This study, hence, discusses the prospects for the India–ASEAN partnership moving forward beyond the RCEP. This is undertaken by first examining the main challenges India faces with the ASEAN Free Trade Arrangement and the RCEP. After which, relevant developments pertaining to India’s multilateral partnership within the Indo-Pacific theatre as well as to India’s economic trajectory are deliberated in relation to ASEAN. Based on this analysis, this study argues that the outlook for India–ASEAN ties remains optimistic since the external and internal pressures needed for important economic reforms has not diminished for India. In addition, there are prospects for wider engagements with ASEAN due to Indo-Pacific-related strategic recalibrations in the region. Therefore, collectively these factors will provide crucial thrusts for the partnership to move forward strongly sans RCEP.

Negotiating same-sex partnership in a ‘tolerant’ state

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes how SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) rights and same-sex partnership are framed and discussed at the macro-level of state discourse as well as the micro-level of individual negotiation of partnership in Japan. Drawing on but reformulating Puar’s concept of homonationalism, we found that the Japanese state projects a progressive national identity that consists ironically in denying full citizenship to sexual and gender minorities. It invokes an alleged history of tolerance in Japan to frame its ‘unique’ and ‘superior’ approach to SOGI rights. It is an approach inextricably bound to the heteronormative institution of marriage and family as a system of ruling. Arguments in favour of same-sex marriage reproduce the same narrative of tolerance, while naturalizing marriage and removing it from its sociolegal context and biologizing sexual orientation. Individuals contemplating or registering partnerships likewise reinforce the sanctity of marriage, even without embracing it. We suggest that a thorough discussion of marriage in its legal framework and historical context is necessary to develop the critical potential of same-sex partnership. We also advocate exploring intra-Asian influences in future research.

The European Commission’s Discourses on Sustainable Development in ‘Trade for All’: An Argumentative Perspective

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations triggered unprecedented contestation over the European Union’s (EU’s) domestic policy space for sustainable development. Whilst extant studies reveal the conflicts between norms and institutions of EU trade politics on sustainable development, and highlight the significance of sustainability in countering neoliberalism, they seldom analyse the incremental steps toward sustainable development achieved by the contestation of TTIP. This article addresses that gap by drawing on an analytical framework that regards political discourse as argumentation for action, which is both constrained and enabled by institutional context (I. Fairclough & N. Fairclough, Political Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students (Routledge, 2012a).). Based on a textual analysis of policy documents on ‘Trade for All’, there are two significant findings: (1) the public contestation on TTIP triggered the European Commission’s (the Commission) practical arguments on sustainable development in ‘Trade for All’ trade strategy; (2) the Commission adapted its original proposal of measures on sustainable development in light of other actors’ criticisms in the implementation of ‘Trade for All’. Taken more broadly, this innovative analytical framework, and my empirical findings, will make a contribution to a research agenda which clarifies obstacles and opportunities for alternative, counter-hegemonic trade policies. European Commission, Sustainable Development, TTIP, Trade, Political Discourse, Practical Argument

Macro & Micro Economics and Financial Impact of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had early success in battling COVID-19, only 3000 cases and 11 deaths by the end of September 2020. This helped to revive economic activities, but a second and more severe wave of infections has seen those numbers spike sharply to over 43,000 infections and 204 deaths as the drew to end.Dealing with Sri Lanka’s foreign debt settlements remains the most critical priority for now. Despite sovereign credit rating downgrades, the government remains confident of meeting all repayments without resorting to a conditional arrangement with international monetary fund. This is in keeping with the government’s stated intentions of moving away from foreign loans to foreign investment, with the latter already earmarked to raise an estimated us$2.3 billion in 2021. For Sri Lanka’s debt burdened economy, the strategy makes good sense. Yet it will also pose fresh challenges in dealing with rivalries closer to home, such as that between china and India.While the Chinese debt trap narrative can be disabused, china does remain Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, owing 9.6 per cent of cent of total outstanding foreign debt at the end of 2019. India’s share is much smaller 2.4 per cent. Sri Lanka made an early appeal to both countries to provide debt relief and hard currency to shore up its foreign exchange reserves. China and India responded swiftly and positively-China granted a us$500 million loan top up and India provided a us $400 million swap arrangement. Sri Lanka is reportedly seeking an additional us$2.5 billion swap funding from both.This time around, Sri Lanka is emphasizing an Asia-centric outlook in its political, economic and strategy positioning. Tellingly, it also assures an India first strategic and security policy within this realignment. How it will work in the harsh light of Sri Lanka’s economic reality is yet to be determined.For now, Chinese investments into Sri Lanka are speeding ahead. The china harbor engineering company that built the Colombo port city signed its first us$1 billion agreement in December 2020. This was on the back of approval to set up a us$300 million Chinese tire factory in close proximity to the Hambantota port. At the same time, a decision on whether India will be allowed to operate a terminal at the port of Colombo that the previous government had agreed to is still pending, despite a recent high level visit by the external affairs minister.Fresh hostilities between china and India on renewed border conflicts, India’s decision to withdraw from the regional comprehensive economic partnership negotiations – which china played a leading role in and rising battles over technology all point to a hardening geopolitical stand off. In this environment of escalating big power rivalries and unrelenting pressure on the economy from the COVID-19, 2021 promises to be yet another testing year for Sri Lanka.

Selling TTIP: The European Commission’s information policy and the spectre of public opinion

This article examines the European Commission’s information policy during the heavily politicised Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Through the methodologically innovative use of Freedom of Information requests, it moves beyond official discourse to reveal how internal deliberation among Commission officials is preoccupied with monitoring and containing civil society mobilisation against the deal. Underpinned by elitist conceptions of democracy, public opinion emerges as a problem to be solved through strategic public relations, despite the Commission’s discursive commitments to greater transparency and political dialogue with citizens. The findings challenge the widely-held notion that a ‘communication deficit’ between European Union institutions and their publics is at the root of the perennially elusive formation of a European public sphere. Instead, approaching TTIP as a key frontline in the struggle over post-democracy, I conclude that antipublic ideas encoded in the Commission’s information policy are reflective of historically engrained institutional ambivalence towards public-political participation.

The Trump Administration’s Impact on US Investment Policy

Abstract This article reviews the Trump Administration’s impact on US investment policy – meaning, US policy regarding the promotion and protection of US investment abroad – at the close of the Administration. In short, the Administration’s impact on US investment policy was substantial by any measure. It withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was effectively the largest investment agreement ever negotiated, and it also renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement and replaced it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which features a novel approach to investor-state dispute settlement. The Administration’s impact on US investment policy was also shaped by steps it chose not to take, including its decision not to replicate its approach in the USMCA in its amendments to the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement, re-start the United States-China Bilateral Investment Treaty or Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations or re-visit dozens of US investment agreements that are currently in force. This article reviews these decisions with a view to considering the challenges and opportunities that await future US policymakers in the executive and legislative branches with respect to US investment policy.

Brexit and the Effects of the Proposed EU–UK Partnership Agreement on the Audiovisual Sector

The audiovisual media industry has undergone and is undergoing a phase of global consolidation. While the sector is a significant component of the European economy, it is a special sector from a cultural perspective. Governments have reacted to this by trying to accommodate a tension between commercial objectives and what is perceived as ‘cultural’ objectives. Also the European Union has sought to reconcile these tensions. Now, Brexit poses further challenges for the global media sector, much of whose business activity was based in the UK.While the exact details of what Brexit would mean were unclear in June 2016, they have been partially clarified since then. The aim is to base the future EU/UK relationship on a free trade agreement, not on the Single Market. However, the audiovisual sector will be excluded from this agreement in line with the long-established precedent of a cultural exception in EU trade deals. The sector has widely understood these following extensive debates since 2013, ahead of adopting the EU mandate for the now-abandoned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the US. Many international broadcasting groups have anticipated the end of UK Single Market access after Brexit by relicensing channels and relocating staff into the EU27. While the UK will retain and maybe grow some core strengths, notably around content production, its role as the leading European centre for global media companies is likely to be eroded by new hubs in the EU27, while UK-based media companies will continue to be affected by EU regulation in relation to market access as well as free movement. There are particular issues around data transfers and state aids. This article seeks to evaluate if the current negotiations cater to the interest of the audiovisual sector and if not, why not. Brexit, EU–UK Partnership, Audiovisual, Post-Brexit settlement, Personal Data, State Aid

Trump\u2019s Trade Policy, BREXIT, Corona Dynamics, EU Crisis and Declining Multilateralism

Since 1991 there has been a reinforcement of the World Market Economy, not least since China and the, then new Russian Federation have joined the World Trade Organization and because of EU Eastern enlargement and ASEAN integration deepening, while the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations seemed to indicate stronger regional integration dynamics. With the Trump Administration, the situation has changed dramatically as President Trump is supportive of neither multilateralism in general nor of the EU, which is weakened through BREXIT, in particular. Trump’s focus on the US merchandise trade balance deficit is ill-placed and import tariffs imposed on China seem to be excessive as the optimum tariff rate is miscalculated on the basis of the traditional formula – while a new adequate formula would include the role of sectoral US outward FDI stocks. Asia, the EU and the US could define fighting the Corona World Recession as a global public good, but the United States is weakened in the corona pandemic crisis; the EU is facing serious problems in avoiding a Euro Crisis 2 problem and the €750 billion EU loan package could undermine the Eurozone’s stability while being inadequate to minimize the risk of a Euro Crisis 2. At the same time, the prospects for EU cooperation are declining due to political disappointment concerning the national corona pandemic policy in some member countries. An effective anti-corona pandemic policy would mean to organize a consistent EU-ASEAN cooperation or a G20 cooperation with a later extension to UN Organizations, including the IMF, the World Bank and the WHO. Post-corona, global governance could change strongly because of the long-term political scarring effects of the pandemic shock which could undermine EU and Western stability. Networked international leadership in support of multilateralism is an innovative – but difficult - option for EU-ASEAN-Mercosur.

What Generates Attention to Health in Trade Policy-Making? Lessons From Success in Tobacco Control and Access to Medicines: A Qualitative Study of Australia and the (Comprehensive and Progressive) Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Background: Despite greater attention to the nexus between trade and investment agreements and their potential impacts on public health, less is known regarding the political and governance conditions that enable or constrain attention to health issues on government trade agendas. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders in the Australian trade domain, this article provides novel insights from policy actors into the range of factors that can enable or constrain attention to health in trade negotiations. Methods: A qualitative case study was chosen focused on Australia’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and the domestic agenda-setting processes that shaped the government’s negotiating mandate. Process tracing via document analysis of media reporting, parliamentary records and government inquiries identified key events during Australia’s participation in the TPP negotiations. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 25 key government and non-government policy actors including Federal politicians, public servants, representatives from public interest nongovernment organisations and industry associations, and academic experts. Results: Interviews revealed that domestic concerns for protecting regulatory space for access to generic medicines and tobacco control emerged onto the Australian government’s trade agenda. This contrasted with other health issues like alcohol control and nutrition and food systems that did not appear to receive attention. The analysis suggests sixteen key factors that shaped attention to these different health issues, including the strength of exporter interests; extent of political will of Trade and Health Ministers; framing of health issues; support within the major political parties; exogenous influencing events; public support; the strength of available evidence and the presence of existing domestic legislation and international treaties, among others. Conclusion: These findings aid understanding of the factors that can enable or constrain attention to health issues on government trade agendas, and offer insights for potential pathways to elevate greater attention to health in future. They provide a suite of conditions that appear to shape attention to health outside the biomedical health domain for further research in the commercial determinants of health.

The Selective Politicization of Transatlantic Trade Negotiations

European Union (EU) trade policy is in the spotlight. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations triggered substantial public mobilization which emerged in a surge of literature on trade politicization. Notwithstanding politicization’s topicality and significance, it varies considerably over time, across trade agreements negotiations as well as across EU member states. By picking up on the latter, this article examines why, despite similar economic benefits potentially to be gained from trade liberalization, TTIP negotiations revealed striking differences in politicization in Germany and the UK. Understanding this variation is illustrated by highlighting the impact of some of TTIPs’ substantial issues mobilizing a range of materially and ideationally motivated stakeholders, who in turn shaped diverging governments’ trade positions of the countries under scrutiny. In explaining this selective politicization across two European countries, focus is on three explanatory variables, domestic material interests (business associations and trade unions), societal ideas (voters and non-governmental organizations [NGOs]) dominant in these countries’ domestic politics, as well as their interaction with national institutions. For this reason, the societal approach to governmental preference formation is employed which provides a detailed exploration of these three domestic factors, as well as the importance of their interdependence, in shaping the TTIP positions of the UK and German governments.

ASEAN at the Crossroads: Trap and Track between CPTPP and RCEP

Abstract In the wake of the mega-free trade agreements, all of the 10 member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations are determined to participate in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and to maintain the centrality of the Association of South East Asian Nations whereas Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam have also opted for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. In view of divergent positions of member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations, this paper asks two questions: empirically, what drives individual member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations toward the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; normatively, do the different positions embraced by member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations weaken the coherence of external relations of the Association of South East Asian Nations and undermine its centrality in Asian regionalism. I argued that Singapore’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership is mainly motivated by its wish to set the rules of free trade agreements in the Asian Pacific. Brunel aims to diversify its domestic economy and to undergo economic reform through international commitments. Vietnam and Malaysia joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership with a view to accessing American market, but Vietnam’s Trans-Pacific Partnership participation should also be understood in the context of its aggressive free trade agreements strategy. This paper argues that solidarity within member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations does not prevent economically advanced member countries from participating in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership for market access; nonetheless, the need of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar should be taken into account through special and differential treatment in Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations.

How do actors with asymmetrical power assert authority in policy agenda-setting? A study of authority claims by health actors in trade policy

How health advocates and industry actors attempt to assert their authority as a strategy of influence in policymaking remains underexplored in the health governance literature. Greater exploration of the kinds of authority sources used by health actors vis-à-vis market actors and the role ideational factors may play in shaping access to these sources provides insight into advocates' efforts to exert influence in policy forums. Using the trade domain in Australia as a case study of the way in which the commercial determinants of health operate, we examined the different ways in which health, public interest and market actors assert their authority. Drawing on a political science typology of authority, we analysed 87 submissions to the Australian government during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. We identify four types of authority claims; institutional authority, derived from holding a position of influence within another established institution; legal authority through appeals to legal agreements and precedents; networked authority through cross-referencing between actors, and expert authority through use of evidence. Combining these claims with a framing analysis, we found that these bases of authority were invoked differently by actors who shared the dominant neoliberal ideology in contrast to those actors that shared a public interest discourse. In particular, market actors were much less likely to rely on external sources of authority, while health and public interest actors were more likely to appeal to networked and expert authority. We argue that actors who share strong ideational alignment with the dominant policy discourse appear less reliant on other sources of authority. Implications of this analysis include the need for greater attention to the different strategies and ideas used by industry and public health organisations in trade policy agenda-setting for health, which ultimately enable or constrain the advancement of health on government agendas.

Opening up by closing off: how increased transparency triggers informalisation in EU decision-making

ABSTRACT With transparency for EU trade negotiations becoming a high-profile topic this past decade, its connection with EU inter-institutional politics has become more consequential. In response to the changed role of the European Parliament and the need to better inform the public debate, the European Commission has significantly reformed its transparency policy for trade negotiations. At the same time however, an institutional process of informalisation at the EU level has enfolded. This study uses process-tracing methodology to determine how the increased transparency caused this informalisation in the case of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. It thereby seeks to uncover a widely-occurring yet surprisingly underexplored process of institutional change that follows from increased transparency. Contrary to earlier accounts of correlations between transparency and informalisation, the author finds that both concepts are not necessarily contradictory. Instead, informality can in fact contribute to transparency goals and help legitimise decision-making.

The Unintended Consequences of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Negotiations

ABSTRACTAlthough stalled since 2016, the negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have had major unintended consequences. The TTIP led to demands from third countries to upgrade their trade relationship with the EU and to unprecedented politicisation. As second-order effects of the latter, it endangered the EU-Canada trade agreement and brought about reform of EU trade governance and amendments to EU trade policy positions. These unintended consequences occurred because of inflated expectations about and insufficient awareness of the different nature of TTIP with regard to scope and partner compared to other trade negotiations. In the meantime, EU trade policy has adapted to the new politics of trade, making unintended consequences less likely.