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Delegation and Agency in EU Trade Policy-Making: Bringing Brussels Back in

Elsig, Manfred. (2007) Delegation and Agency in EU Trade Policy-Making: Bringing Brussels Back in. In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    This paper addresses the political economy of foreign trade policy-making in the European Union (EU). In light of recent developments in global trade regulation towards more regional and bilateral trade arrangements, the paper asks what drives trade-policy-making in the EU? Using a Principal-Agent (PA) framework the paper looks at how institutional and societal factors shape EU trade policymaking and attempts to bring the Community institutions back in. The paper adds to a growing literature on PA that increasingly looks at the agency side of the PA equation. It is argued that the agent (the EU Commission) is neither a master’s servant nor a run-away bureaucrat. The agent is most powerful when setting the agenda and resisting change to its overall strategy. The existence of collective and multiple principals and the multi-level system facilitate agency. Empirically, the paper discusses the use of venues for trade regulation and provides insights from the EU–Mercosur negotiations.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Mercosur.
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > External relations > international trade
    EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-Latin America
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > European Commission
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > institutional development/policy > decision making/policy-making
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Conference: European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2007 (10th), May 17-19, 2007
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2008
    Page Range: p. 34
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:50
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7809

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