Patricia García-Durán Huet

University of Barcelona | UB · Economic History, Institutions, Political and World Economy

A core principle of the liberal international order established by Europe and the US after World War II was separating security from economic issues as much as possible. However, since 2016 this has become increasingly untenable. A more protectionist, hawkish, and less multilateral US has questioned aspects of the liberal international order and Am...

The European Commission presented its Open, Sustainable and Assertive (OSA) trade strategy in early 2021, heralding the document as representing a new and strategic approach to countering dependency and strengthening resiliency. We analyse the OSA through policy paradigms, making two contributions to the trade policy literature. First, we show that...

The European Union (EU) presented its new trade strategy in early 2021. This article assesses whether the strategy constitutes a path-altering development in EU trade policy. Drawing on concepts from Historical Institutionalism the article assesses the presence and influence of the permissive and productive conditions necessary for a critical junct...

The paper assesses the EU's shifting trade policy orientation, and how it is aligning more with the trade strategy pursued by the US. However, clear normative and empirical differences remain.

Ciclo de charlas abiertas en el marco del Magister en Políticas y Estrategias del Departamento de Economía de la Universidad Nacional del Sur, y el proyecto Redefiniendo América.

Trade policy constitutes a significant part of the European Union's (EU) foreign policy. The EU's emphasis on global trade liberalization in the 21st century is most evident through its ever increasing number of modern, deep, bilateral trade agreements. However, aspects of EU trade policy and bilateral agreements are hotly contested. We examine thi...

Geopolitical and geoeconomic changes are destabilising the global trading system. China’s assertiveness, its rivalry with the US, WTO reform and EU strategic autonomy are all current political debates with major economic implications. Local economies depend on global value chains and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona is no exception. Economic grow...

Commentary on EU trade policy in 2020. https://sites.utu.fi/bre/eu-trade-and-investment-policy/

This editorial provides an introduction to the thematic issue "Politicization of EU Trade Policy Across Time and Space." The academic editors place the issue in the context of the current literature, introduce the contributions, and discuss how the articles, individually and jointly, add to the state of the art.

Several studies have sought to explain the politicization of European Union's (EU) trade policy during negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA). This article contributes to the literature on the politicization of trade by assessing h...

The norm of an open, rules based, trading system is of crucial importance to the European Union (EU), and it promotes this norm globally. The EU’s trade bi-and multilateral agreements is its organizing principle for this norm. Trade agreements, whether multilateral, plurilateral, regional, or bilateral, entail an institutionalization of the costs a...

Eliasson and Garcia-Duran lay out the theoretical framework used to present, analyze, and explain the evolution of the public duel over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) during the time of negotiations. Opponents sought to raise the salience of TTIP and mobilize people against the agreement. This required a particular strate...

In the rhetorical duel over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, supporters emphasized its prospective economic and geostrategic benefits; opponents emphasized the negative effect of TTIP on health and safety standards and public policies. Arguments are based on premises, which rest on assumptions and/or presuppositi...

This book investigates the politics of transatlantic trade, specifically the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Using a novel approach, the authors analyze the rhetorical choices made by opponents and supporters of an agreement, and the logical behind their arguments. Opponents used emotive frames and strategically chosen...

This chapter explains and justifies the usefulness of a rhetorical analysis of a politicized negotiation, namely, the attempt at the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the US. The talks failed to conclude after more than three years of negotiations. Eliasson and Garcia-Duran present a snapshot of tr...

In this chapter, Eliasson and Garcia-Duran contextualize the decision to launch negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and provide a summary of previous attempts at forging a transatlantic marketplace. They discuss how the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries witnessed several developments in transatlan...

The public debate during the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations was a rhetorical duel between opponents and supporters, with arguments directed at the public. Eliasson and Garcia-Duran summarize and explain why framing and word choice matter, as opponents successfully dominated the debate, but also what the European...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations became highly contested and politicized due to a sustained anti-TTIP campaign by civil society organizations. This elicited a response from supporters, represented by the European Commission. Eliasson and Garcia-Duran identify the rhetorical strategies used by European Commissio...

The European Union and the United States negotiated the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between June 2013 and November 2016, when it was paused indefinitely, or placed in a “deep freeze.” Eliasson and Garcia-Duran show how civil society organizations strategically chose certain issues (standards, investor rights, and transpare...

There is a debate in international relations on how, when, and why international institutions influence domestic policy. This article contributes to this debate by looking at the influence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It shows that the transfer of authority to international ins...

Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) commenced in 2013, and soon became the most controversial bilateral trade agreement negotiations ever attempted by the European Union (EU). When trying to understand the escalating debate over the proposed agreement, most analyses have highlighted opposition to the deal, espe...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was intended to create jobs and boost the economies on both sides of the Atlantic. However, constituency support was difficult to garnish, and negotiations were frozen in late 2016, leaving their conclusion in doubt. What led to this stage? Why has an agreement been elusive? Using an array o...

This contribution argues that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is unprecedented, not because it constitutes a Polanyian moment, but rather because it offers an alternative to multilateralism through the World Trade Organization (WTO). Never before has bilateralism offered such a ‘best alternative to no agreement’ (BATNA) to...

The European Union’s trade strategy since 2006 has been justified on the assumption that deep and comprehensive bilateral trade agreements are at worst complementary to and at best promote multilateral negotiations. Drawing from the literature on the impact of the multilateral regime on the formation and objective of bilateral or regional agreement...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have become the center of debate in EU trade policy, where the European Commission and civil society organizations are key actors. This paper argues that a key reason why TTIP has become so controversial has to do with the nature of the arguments used by each side. The main argu...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have become the centre of debate in EU trade policy, where the European Commission and civil society organizations are key actors. This article argues that a key reason why TTIP has become so controversial has to do with the nature of the arguments used by each side. The main ar...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have become the centre of debate in EU trade policy, where the European Commission and civil society organizations are key actors. This article argues that a key reason why TTIP has become so controversial has to do with the nature of the arguments used by each side. The main ar...

In October 2015, Cecilia Malmström, European Union Trade Commissioner, presented Trade for All, the trade strategy of the European Commission over the next years. While preserving the European social and regulatory model at home, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements will be pursued so as to improve market access in third countries and contri...

The authors offer an analysis of the EU’s response to the transformation of the international trade regime that became radically clear at the 2003 Cancun Summit of the World Trade Organization, where emerging powers challenged an EU-US pre-agreement on agriculture. The failure of Cancun marked the end of a governance system dominated by Western pow...

Just like previous European Commission trade strategy papers Trade for All argues that it is the other way round: EU bilateralism is designed to help multilateralism. This article shows that this outcome is not obvious. While EU bilateralism may promote multilateralism, it could also hinder it. On the other hand, for a bilateral EU approach to prom...

The EU bilateral trade strategy since 2006, including the TTIP, has been justified by the European Commission on the bases that deep and comprehensive trade agreements are compatible with efficient multilateralism. The Commission argument is the following: in a context marked by international supply-chains, preferential agreements that allow for pr...

In recent years, scholars have called into question the often-heard policy statements that link a stronger single voice of the European Union (EU) to more European influence in international negotiations. This article examines this challenge in an area where the EU has a particularly long tradition of establishing common policies: agriculture. By c...

There is an ongoing debate on which are the determinants of CAP reform. The economic environment has not been contemplated as a direct determinant of CAP reform but its proxy, the budget, has not only been looked at as such but underlined as a key cause of CAP reform. This paper argues, however, that the budget does not affect the modus operandi of...

La naturaleza comercial de la UE es uno de sus rasgos definitorios. El Tratado de Roma apostaba no sólo por la liberalización comercial interna sino también por otorgar a una nueva entidad supraestatal personalidad jurídica para elaborar, negociar y aplicar las relaciones comerciales exteriores con países terceros. La UE es formalmente una unión ad...

Resumen: Este artículo analiza si el cambio en la estrategia comercial de la UE en el siglo xxi hacia el bilateralismo está en contradic-ción con su objetivo de fomentar un multila-teralismo eficaz. Pone de manifiesto que la emergencia de nuevos poderes en el ámbito del comercio ha producido una ruptura en la estructura histórica del comercio inter...

SUMARIO: I. INTRODUCCIÓN.—II. REGULACIÓN DEL COMERCIO AGRÍCOLA HASTA LA RONDA URUGUAY.—III. EL ACUERDO AGRÍCOLA NEGOCIADO EN LA RONDA URU-GUAY DEL GATT.—IV. LA RONDA DE DOHA: HACIA UN NUEVO ACUERDO INTERNA-CIONAL SOBRE COMERCIO AGRÍCOLA: 1. Acceso a Mercados. 2. Ayuda interna. 3. Subven-ciones a las exportaciones.—V. CONSIDERACIONES FINALES. I. INT...

Resumen (90 palabras) La Unión Europea se encuentra actualmente inmersa en un proceso de cambio de su sistema de gobernanza económica. Este artículo analiza por qué los Estados miembros están siendo capaces de cooperar en temas que en los años 1990s eran tabú en la arena comunitaria. En base a una metodología cualitativa y un marco teórico nutrido...

The EU's system of economic governance is currently undergoing significant change. This article analyses why member states are able to work together in areas in which, in the 1990s, cooperation would have been impossible. Applying a qualitative methodology and a theoretical framework based on neofunctionalist and intergovernmental approaches, we co...

In undertaking an analysis of neighbouring effects on European regional patterns of specialization., this paper makes two main contributions to the literature. First, we use a spatial weight matrix that takes into consideration membership if an EU cross-border regional association. We then compare our results with those obtained using a contiguity...

The European Community has provided financial support for cross-border territorial cooperation since 1990. The justification of the European Union (EU)'s current territorial cooperation policy for cross-border contiguous regions lies in its capacity to promote functional economic links between them. This capacity is based on two assumptions, namely...

The European Community has provided financial support for cross-border territorial cooperation since 1990. The justification of the European Union (EU)’s current territorial cooperation policy for cross-border contiguous regions lies in its capacity to promote functional economic links between them. This capacity is based on two assumptions, namely...

Resumen La política de Vecindad de la Unión Europea se acostumbra a interpretar como un instrumento de europeización forzada. Gracias a su fuerza de negociación, la Unión Europea impondría a sus vecinos su modelo económico y hasta político y social. Esta sin embargo no es la evidencia que se obtiene en el ámbito del comercio. En consonancia con e...

Most of the literature on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has assumed that it is an instrument directed at Europeanising neighbours. Through this policy, the EU would be encouraging its neighbour countries to adopt an EU-specific economic, and even social and political, model. This is not, however, the evidence one obtains analysing the EU...

The objective of this paper is to ascertain whether the EU is seeking policy convergence with its neighbours in the area of trade by means of EU regulations. For each trade- related topic, we carried out a content analysis of the available official documents to identify the model of relations that has been established between the EU and four neighb...

El artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio orientado a conocer los efectos de un sistema de evaluación continua voluntaria usando la plataforma Moodle y un amplio banco de actividades, basadas en trabajos individuales y colaborativos, que el alumnado puede escoger. El objetivo de proponer este sistema de evaluación es doble. Por un lado, se...

Switching from the Inttrreg programme to the territorial cooperation goal was detrimental to the interests of the border areas of the South of the European Union. Territorial cooperation has recei vedfinancial support from the European Union (EU) since 1990; until 2006, the subsidies were channelled through the community programme Interreg. For the...

Sumario: I. INTRODUCCIÓN. II. EL ACUERDO “TODO MENOS ARMAS”. III. FACTORES EXPLICATIVOS DEL RETRASO DE LA PLENA LIBERALIZACIÓN PARA EL ARROZ ASIÁTICO. IV. LOS PMA ASIÁTICOS EN EL CONTEXTO DEL COMERCIO DEL ARROZ DE LA UE. V. CONCLUSIÓN

LA NUEVA COOPERACIÓN TERRITORIAL TRANSFRONTERIZA Y SUS IMPLICACIONES PARA ESPAÑA RESUMEN: El libro verde sobre «cohesión territorial» se ha hecho público en octubre de 2008. El Tratado de Lisboa prevé elevar esta cohesión al nivel de la económica y social. Todo indica que el tercer objetivo de la Política de Cohesión Económica y Social (PCES) 2007-...

Le passage du programme Interreg à l’objectif de coopération territoriale s’est fait au détriment des intérêts des régions frontalières du Sud de l’Union européenne. L’analyse comparative des systèmes de répartition 2000-2006 et 2007-2013 du volet communautaire pour la section transfrontalière de la coopération territoriale met en évidence qu’il y...

Abstract The WTO rules have had a direct influence upon the 2006 reform of the European Common Market Sugar Organisation. The pre-2006 sugar CMO was not in a position to successfully face neither the recent Resolution of the World Trade Organisation’s Dispute Settlement Body and the liberalisation demands made in the Doha Round context. Through a c...

The Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion was published in October 2008. The Lisbon Treaty aims to raise this cohesion to the economic and social level. All the indications are that the third objective of the EU Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 will be consolidated. The present article has two aims: first, to fill the current gap in the literature regarding...

La crisis económica actual hace temer una vuelta al proteccionismo comercial como ha ocurrido en episodios de crisis anteriores. A pesar de los compromisos del G-20 de no recurrir a medidas de protección, 17 de sus miembros las han utilizado desde noviembre de 2008. Aunque este rebrote se puede catalogar por ahora de moderado, existe, además, un ri...

La politica de Vecindad de la Union Europea se acostumbra a interpretar como un instrumento de europeizacion forzada. Gracias a su fuerza de negociacion, la Union Europea impondria a sus vecinos su modelo economico y hasta politico y social. Esta sin embargo no es la evidencia que se obtiene en el ambito del comercio. En consonancia con el modelo t...

El último acuerdo interinstitucional sobre disciplina financiera y buena gestión financiera, de 17 de mayo de 2006, prevé, por primera vez, que se lleve a cabo una revisión del marco financiero de la Unión Europea a mitad de período, en el ejercicio 2008-2009. En vistas a esta revisión, este artículo hace un análisis en clave europea de las perspec...

El 20 de febrero de 2006 se aprobó el Reglamento nº 318/2006 del Consejo que reforma la OCM del azúcar. Este artículo defiende que se trata de una reforma de mínimos en base a un análisis en clave internacional del régimen europeo del azúcar antes y después de la reforma. Por un lado, se pone de manifiesto que la anterior OCM del azúcar no podía cu...

El trabajo mide el margen existente para que la UE pueda responder a las demandas liberalizadoras sobre el comercio agrícola que se plantean en la Ronda de Doha de la OMC. Dado que las negociaciones actuales parten de los compromisos pactados en el Acuerdo Agrícola en vigor, se presenta, primero, el grado de cumplimiento del mismo por la UE-25 y, p...

Au cours du mois d’octobre dernier, face à l’imminence de la VIème conférence ministérielle de l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce de Hong Kong, les démandes de libéralisation, dans le cadre du volet agricole du cycle de Doha, se sont concrétisées. Selon notre analyse, les réformes 2000 et 2003 de la PAC ne permettent pas à l’UE à 25 de s’ajuster a...

El nuevo marco negociador del proceso de adhesión, acordado en el Consejo Europeo de diciembre de 2004, confiere a la Unión Europea nuevos instrumentos de blindaje ante próximas ampliaciones. Para hacerlo, sin embargo, introduce la posibilidad de dotar a la Unión de una nueva flexibilidad: la de ofrecer opciones de adhesión ad hoc u opciones difere...

During the month of October with the upcoming VIth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation in , Hong Kong, demands for liberalisation have materialised, as part of the agricultural part of the Doha cycle. According to our analysis, the 2000 and 2003 reforms of the CAP do not enable the 25-countries EU to adjust to demands by the Unit...

La coopération transfrontalière supère déjà le cadre estrictement national. Chaque fois plus de régions et municipalités coopérent, à différents niveaux, avec les territoires d’autres Etats membres. La progressive consolidation de l’objectif de « cohésion territoriale » ne peut que renforcer cette tendance.

Le cinquième élargissement de l’Union européenne n’est pas comme les autres. Le traité d’adhésion qui en établit le cadre, non plus. Il contient, de façon explicite et implicite, des clauses de sauvegarde spécifiques innovatrices. Les clauses explicites répondent aux faiblesses des pays adhérents. Les implicites sont possibles parce que certains do...

Más que reunificar el Continente Europeo, la quinta ampliación de la Unión Europea parece haber exacerbado sus divisiones. Ante propuestas como la de crear un núcleo duro de países en el seno de la Unión o de limitar el presupuesto comunitario al 1% de la renta nacional bruta comunitaria, uno no puede sino plantearse si los Quince querían realmente...

El Reglamento de la Comunidad Económica Europea (CEE) para el control de concentraciones entre empresas “de dimensión europea” constituye la ampliación más importante de la legislación comunitaria de la competencia desde los años cincuenta. El control de fusiones entre empresas estaba explícitamente contemplado en el Tratado de París de 1951 consti...

Political scientists have been searching for a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain the dynamics of European integration since the European Communities came into being in the early 1950s. European integration theory was dominated by neo-functionalism in the 1960s and by realism in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1980s these two par...