Abstract
This chapter engages with debates on European Union (EU) actorness in a regional and global context by analysing the challenges faced in the nexus between trade and regulation. Whilst it speaks with one voice in international organisations and has been proclaimed the champion of the “rules-based order” in trade, EU actorness varies with its purpose and context. This is evident in its varying ability to set global rules, export the Acquis Communautaire, and act as demandeur. In this chapter, we highlight the social construction of actorness, where EU actorness depends on the ways it conceptualises itself (purpose) and its means (instruments). How it manages its purpose and instruments, defines its legitimacy. The analytical focus is on the communicative discourse of the European Commission on trade regulation and the role of trade policy. Whilst multiple paradigms and discourses interact in EU trade policy-making, we highlight the legitimising discourse around three representations: the need to act, getting prepared to act, and taking its rightful place as an actor.
This chapter draws on some of the data analysed in Garnizova (2018). The chapter does not reflect on the changes brought about by the Covid-19 crisis.
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Notes
- 1.
Schmidt provides a differentiation between different types of interactive processes where actors are “engaged in ‘coordinative’ discourse of policy construction, and political actors engaged with the public in ‘communicative’ discourse of deliberation, contestation, and legitimisation” (Schmidt, 2017, 2011).
- 2.
Mercantilism, Free Trade, Listian (neo-mercantilism), Embedded liberalism, Fair Trade, Trade as Foreign Policy (De Ville & Siles-Brügge 2018, pp. 244–245).
- 3.
Dates listed in brackets reflect the official launch and the signature of the agreement. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) provisionally entered into force on 21 September 2017.
- 4.
Negotiations over the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership were suspended after Donald Trump’s inauguration in early 2017. In 2019, both the EU and the USA published negotiating directives for re-launching negotiations over EU-USA agreement.
- 5.
The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement entered into force on 1 February 2019.
- 6.
Examples are the International Procurement Instrument and the Framework for Screening of Foreign Direct Investment (European Commission, 2017a).
- 7.
For elaboration on the use of globalisation as a threat, see Siles-Brügge (2014).
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Garnizova, E. (2022). Taking Its Rightful Place? Legitimising Discourse and EU Actorness in the Nexus of Trade and Regulation. In: Freire, M.R., Lopes, P.D., Nascimento, D., Simão, L. (eds) EU Global Actorness in a World of Contested Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92997-8_6
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