The EU’s insistence on reciprocal trade with the ACP group. Economic interests in the driving seat?
The EU’s insistence on reciprocal trade with the ACP group. Economic interests in the driving seat?
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欧盟坚持与非加太集团的互惠贸易？经济利益占主导地位？
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Orbie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Faber;J. Orbie
本文着眼于欧盟与非加太集团贸易关系的转变。首先，欧盟在关于欧盟-非加太科托努协定(1995-2000年)和与非加太六个地区的经济伙伴关系协定(自2002年以来)的谈判中大力主张互惠自由贸易。然后提出了一个假设，即欧洲寻求互惠，尽管遭到非加太国家和一些欧洲参与者的抵制，但可以用欧盟的经济利益来解释。为了验证这一假设，下一节从对非加太国家的出口机会和对能源的依赖两个方面考察了欧洲的经济利益。分析表明，欧洲对互惠的强烈坚持与这些国家对欧盟的经济意义不成比例。最后，本文详细阐述了对欧盟立场的其他解释。尽管与世界贸易组织规则的兼容性为欧盟寻求互惠提供了一个表面上的解释，但有人认为，这更根本的驱动因素是欧洲与非非加太国家的经济利益，以及欧洲将自由贸易作为旧食谱的替代方案的意识形态信念。
This paper looks at the transformation of the European Union’s trade relationship with the ACP group. It starts from the observation that the EU has forcefully argued for reciprocal free trade during the negotiations on the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement (1995-2000) and the Economic Partnership Agreements with six ACP regions (from 2002). Then the hypothesis is raised that Europe’s quest for reciprocity, despite resistance from ACP countries and some European actors, can be explained by EU economic interests. Testing this hypothesis, the next section examines Europe’s economic interests in terms of export opportunities to and energy dependence from the ACP countries. The analysis shows that Europe’s strong insistence on reciprocity is disproportionate to the economic significance of these countries for the EU. Finally, the paper elaborates on alternative explanations for the Union’s position. Although compatibility with the rules of the World Trade Organization provides a superficial explanation for the EU’s drive for reciprocity, it is argued that this is more fundamentally driven by Europe’s economic interests with non-ACP countries and by its ideological belief in free trade as an alternative to old recipes.