Normative versus market power Europe? The EU-India trade agreement

Abstract

The normative power Europe concept has greatly enriched the academic debate on what the EU is (should be), what it does (should do) and what impact it has (should have). However, various theoretical, methodological and empirical issues remain insufficiently addressed. This article will address two issues that have mostly been neglected: the perspective of the norm takers (in line with this special issue) and the market norms of the EU. The first section elaborates on these two issues, relying on recent advances in the literature and specifically the contributions by Damro (J Eur Publ Pol 19(5):682–699, 2012) and Rosamond (Brit J Polit Int Relat 16(1):133–148, 2013). Against this background, the second section examines the controversial EU trade negotiations with India. Specifically, this empirical part section focuses on how market liberal norms (government procurement) and cosmopolitan norms (human rights) are being promoted and received. We conclude that in the eyes of the EU, trade agreements could be a means to mitigate partners’ opposition and an eventual stepping stone for successful off-take of international social standards and multilateral procurement liberalization regulations by its partner countries. But, partner countries might not necessarily espouse the EU’s interest-led motivation and lend support to the EU’s desire to effuse multilateral norms through trading agreements. The case study on EU-India trade talks illustrates this, highlighting the divergence between the EU and Indian perspectives and demonstrates India’s lack of enthusiasm to adopt the EU’s preferred model for liberalization

The Role of Eu Institutions in Common Trade Policy: An Assessment on Eu-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

“…Hurt, 2003;Langan, 2009;Storey, 2006). Constructivist works focus on the role of the EU in spreading liberal norms and principles internationally through commercial means (Grugel, 2004;Orbie & Khorana, 2015).…”

Introduction to the Handbook on the EU and International Trade

“…This is an issue that the EU has to factor in when negotiating the terms of exit with the UK. Further, EU trade relations with third parties are rife with disputes (see the chapters by Eckehardt and Choukroune), and its trade negotiations are increasingly contested (García and Masselot, 2015;Orbie and Khorana, 2015). As the chapters in this collection by Tony Heron and Peg Murray-Evans, and Lore Van den Putte and Samantha Velluti reveal, even in relations where the EU possesses leverage given developing states' greater dependence on the EU than vice versa, exercising the EU's market power is no straightforward affair.…”

Human Rights Conditionality in European Union Trade Negotiations: the Case of the EU–Singapore FTA

“…The focus in this literature has often been on coherence between the EU's ambitions for values promotion and the commercial objectives of trade policy (Orbie et al ., ; Orbie and Tortell, ). Scholars have also taken a focus on coherence (Sicurelli, ) between the EU's values promotion and commercial interests in its trade negotiations with ASEAN Member States (see Wong, ; Orbie and Khorana, on India; Maass, ; and Sicurelli, on Vietnam).…”

“…The promotion of values plays an important role in the EU's trade policy. Extensive scholarship has analyzed the relationship between values and trade policy, identifying tensions between the EU's trade policy and values such as human rights (Kerremans and Orbie, ; Manners, ; Orbie and Kerremans, ; Orbie and Khorana, ). Bossuyt () and Leeg (), as well as Young () and Peterson (Young and Peterson, ) have analyzed values promotion in the EU's trade negotiations, emphasizing that the EU often fails to meet its benchmarks in balancing commercial interests with political values.…”