
EU trade policy : persistent liberalisation, contentious protectionism
- Author
- Yelter Bollen, Ferdi De Ville (UGent) and Jan Orbie (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- How has EU trade policy responded to the protracted economic crisis starting in 2008? Unlike during the Great Depression of the 1930s, politicians have not resorted to protectionist measures to try to contain the downturn. The response has been just the opposite, with the dominant discourse arguing that in times of austerity and private deleveraging, trade liberalisation is indispensable for restoring growth. Adopting a historical-institutionalist perspective, we argue that the crisis has had an asymmetric effect on the two most important subsystems of EU trade policy. On the one hand, the EU took a leap forward on the path of bilateral free trade liberalisation by starting negotiations with the US, Canada and Japan. On the other hand, proposals to continue with permissive reforms for the adoption of trade defence easures and to give the EU more leverage vis-à-vis merging economies have been blocked. We thus conclude that EU trade policy after the crisis has shown asymmetric continuity, where the liberalisation trend has been resumed more radically while accompanying defensive reforms to ease the potential pain of liberalisation have run into a stalemate.
- Keywords
- Trade Policy, Crisis, DISCOURSE, POLITICS, TTIP, EU, International Procurement, Solar Panel Dispute, Anti-Dumping, Free Trade Agreements
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-7104979
- MLA
- Bollen, Yelter, et al. “EU Trade Policy : Persistent Liberalisation, Contentious Protectionism.” JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, edited by Gerda Falkner, vol. 38, no. 3, Routledge, 2016, pp. 279–94, doi:10.1080/07036337.2016.1140758.
- APA
- Bollen, Y., De Ville, F., & Orbie, J. (2016). EU trade policy : persistent liberalisation, contentious protectionism. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, 38(3), 279–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2016.1140758
- Chicago author-date
- Bollen, Yelter, Ferdi De Ville, and Jan Orbie. 2016. “EU Trade Policy : Persistent Liberalisation, Contentious Protectionism.” Edited by Gerda Falkner. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION 38 (3): 279–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2016.1140758.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Bollen, Yelter, Ferdi De Ville, and Jan Orbie. 2016. “EU Trade Policy : Persistent Liberalisation, Contentious Protectionism.” Ed by. Gerda Falkner. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION 38 (3): 279–294. doi:10.1080/07036337.2016.1140758.
- Vancouver
- 1.Bollen Y, De Ville F, Orbie J. EU trade policy : persistent liberalisation, contentious protectionism. Falkner G, editor. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION. 2016;38(3):279–94.
- IEEE
- [1]Y. Bollen, F. De Ville, and J. Orbie, “EU trade policy : persistent liberalisation, contentious protectionism,” JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 279–294, 2016.
@article{7104979, abstract = {{How has EU trade policy responded to the protracted economic crisis starting in 2008? Unlike during the Great Depression of the 1930s, politicians have not resorted to protectionist measures to try to contain the downturn. The response has been just the opposite, with the dominant discourse arguing that in times of austerity and private deleveraging, trade liberalisation is indispensable for restoring growth. Adopting a historical-institutionalist perspective, we argue that the crisis has had an asymmetric effect on the two most important subsystems of EU trade policy. On the one hand, the EU took a leap forward on the path of bilateral free trade liberalisation by starting negotiations with the US, Canada and Japan. On the other hand, proposals to continue with permissive reforms for the adoption of trade defence easures and to give the EU more leverage vis-à-vis merging economies have been blocked. We thus conclude that EU trade policy after the crisis has shown asymmetric continuity, where the liberalisation trend has been resumed more radically while accompanying defensive reforms to ease the potential pain of liberalisation have run into a stalemate.}}, articleno = {{3}}, author = {{Bollen, Yelter and De Ville, Ferdi and Orbie, Jan}}, editor = {{Falkner, Gerda}}, issn = {{0703-6337}}, journal = {{JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION}}, keywords = {{Trade Policy,Crisis,DISCOURSE,POLITICS,TTIP,EU,International Procurement,Solar Panel Dispute,Anti-Dumping,Free Trade Agreements}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{3:279--3:294}}, publisher = {{Routledge}}, title = {{EU trade policy : persistent liberalisation, contentious protectionism}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2016.1140758}}, volume = {{38}}, year = {{2016}}, }
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