Comparative Asymmetric Trade Negotiations in the Southern Cone: FTAA and EU-MERCOSUR

BOTTO, MERCEDES Y ANDREA BIANCULLI

Asymmetric Trade Negotiations

Ashgate

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2011; p. 89 - 116

The stop –go asymmetric negotiations involving MERCOSUR seem to be more readily explained by the second argument. In effect, by the mid-1990s MERCOSUR external agenda involved negotiations with the United States (US) to establish a free trade area along the continent: the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Negotiations with the European Union (EU) pursued the same objective. However, after a long process and numerous meetings, neither of the two negotiations was closed. As negotiations advanced, difficulties to come to an agreement are explained not only by the small and insignificant economic gains for middle countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, but by the increasing governance demands and criteria imposed by the northern partners as well. Both the moderate trade gains and the regulatory and standard content have increased the costs of the negotiations, contributing thus to their impasse or even dilution. In order to develop this argument, the paper is organised as follows. The next section will examine the emergence of ‘new regionalism’ in the 1990s and highlight two negotiation processes: the FTAA and the EU-MERCOSUR agreement in this context, together with an analysis of the winners and losers within each scheme. The third section concentrates on comparing similarities and differences between these two processes and finally, a description of the changes and modifications they underwent between 1995 and 2004. The final aim is to determine to what extent national positions were transformed along these 10-year negotiating processes, while procedural and governance demands kept increasing. Finally, the conclusion section presents an initial comparative analysis of the reasons that account for both negotiations processes coming to a halt or impasse.