1st Edition

International Trade Negotiations and Domestic Politics The Intermestic Politics of Trade Liberalization

Edited By Oluf Langhelle Copyright 2014
    264 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    264 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In spite of many years of negotiation on trade liberalization, progress seems to have stalled. This book explores why resistance to further market liberalization seems so strong, given that the benefits are seen to outweigh the costs.

    This volume argues that in order to understand the slow progress of World Trade Organization negotiations, we need to take into consideration the ‘intermestic’ character of trade politics, that is, the way in which international and domestic aspects of politics and policies have been woven together and become inextricably related to each other. This is a general trend in our globalizing world, and one that is most pronounced in the case of trade politics and policy.

    International Trade Negotiations and Domestic Politics therefore presents an in-depth analysis of institutions, ideas, interests and actors in the interplay between international trade negotiations and national negotiating positions. At the international level the authors focus on the multilateral negotiations within the World Trade Organization, together with the plurilateral and bilateral negotiations on free trade agreements. At the regional and domestic level they analyze the trade politics and policies of two established powers, the European Union and the USA; two rising powers, China and India; and a small industrialized country with an open economy, Norway.

    1. Towards the Intermestic Politics of Trade: Institutions, ideas, interests and actors Oluf Langhelle, Hilmar Rommetvedt and Arild Aurvåg Farsund 2. The Global Trade Agenda Oluf Langhelle, Hilmar Rommetvedt and Arild Aurvåg Farsund 3. Multilevel Negotiations in American Trade Policy: Free trade agreements from Bush to Obama David M. Olson 4. The European Union: Balancing trade liberalization and protectionism Carsten Daugbjerg 5. India’s Trade Politics: Continuity and change Amrita Narlikar 6. China: An open, confident and booming trading nation Ning Jun, Yao Lei and Wang Gefei 7. Norway: Agricultural exceptionalism and the quest for free trade Arild Aurvåg Farsund 8. The Intermestic Politics of Trade Oluf Langhelle, Arild Aurvåg Farsund and Hilmar Rommetvedt

    Biography

    Oluf Langhelle is Professor of Political Science at the University of Stavanger, Norway.

    "Coined in an article in Foreign Affairs in 1977, the term 'intermestic' refers to international and national issues that are inseparably woven together. Langhelle (U. of Stavanger and International Research Institute, Norway) points out in the preface that the Doha negotiations in the World Trade Organization have been slow-going since December 2011, in part because of challenging domestic interests and non-trade policy objectives that are creating obstacles to development of a multilateral trade system. This volume results from a collaborative effort (including three workshops) involving scholars from China, Denmark (representing the EU, India, Norway, and the US. The nine contributed chapters consist of a theoretical framework, empirical presentation of Doha negotiations and Preferential Trade Agreements, case studies, and a conclusion organizing data in an intermestic framework." - Book News