Business Lobbying and EU Trade Governance in a World of Global Value Chains

Abstract

In the last two decades, we have witnessed important changes in the world economy, in particular, in the fields of international trade and industrial organization. One of the most significant of these changes has been the radical restructuring of global production and the resulting development of global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs). A key objective of this book is to construct a theoretical framework which takes into account some of these changes. This chapter will explain how, in an age where international production and trade increasingly occurs through value chains, import-dependent firms have become key new actors in the trade policy-making landscape. I will develop hypotheses which take into account the political involvement of import-dependent firms, as well as more established societal interests, in the context of EU’s system of trade defense instruments (TDIs).