1st Edition
European Union Trade Politics and Development 'Everything but Arms' Unravelled
The ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA) regulation of the European Union (EU) has been hailed as a groundbreaking initiative for developing countries. Since 2001 EBA grants almost completely liberalized access to the European market for products from the least-developed countries (LDCs). It quickly became the most symbolic European trade initiative towards the Third World since the first Lomé Convention in the 1970s.
Given its central position in EU discourse and its continuing relevance for the European and international trade agenda, this book attempts to present a thorough analysis of EBA. ‘European Union Trade Politics and Development’ contains contributions from a diverse range of scholars who collectively present a comprehensive picture of EBA. This volume also contains a broader analysis of EU trade politics towards the South, focusing on agricultural policy reform, Europe’s evolving relationship with ACP countries (ex-colonies from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific), it links EBA with Europe’s negotiating position within the World Trade Organization. Contributions to this volume also consider the continuing negotiation leverage of EBA within the Doha Development Agenda, make comparisons with United States trade policy vis-à-vis the LDCs, and focus on the economic effectiveness of EBA in terms of its stated objectives as well as on the institutional skirmishing within the EU.
1. Introduction: The Relevance of EBA for Europe’s Trade and Development Policies 2. The Development of EBA 3. The North-South Dimension within the European Union: Conflicts over EBA 4. Bureaucratic Competition in EU Trade Policy: EBA as a Case of Competing Two-level Games 5. The Political Dynamics behind US and EU Trade Initiatives Towards the Least-developed Countries 6. Unilateral Trade Preferences of the US and the EU: Their Effectiveness for Sub-Saharan Exports and the Role of Geography and Institutions 7. Unilateral Trade Preferences of the US and the EU: Their Effectiveness and the Role of the Rules of Origin in the Apparel Sector 8. Symbolic and Effective?: An LDC Perspective on Duty- and Quota Free Market Access 9. The Significance of the EBA Scheme for CAP Reform 10. X EBA and the EU Sugar Market: Development Gift or Trojan Horse? 11. EU-ACP Negotiations on Regional Partnership Agreements and EBA 12. Normative Power Europe?: EBA, Economic Partnership Agreements and Benevolent Self-images. Conclusion: All About Nothing?
Biography
Gerrit Faber is Associate Professor of International Economics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Jan Orbie is Assistant Professor in EU Politics at Ghent University, Belgium.
