Working paper: “Argentinean business associations and Mercosur: conflict and cooperation during free trade negotiations”

GIL, LUCIANA

Duisburg

Workshop; Workshop: Cooperating Across Global Regions: Societal Actors, Transnational Mobilization, and Regional Integration 1960s-2020; 2021

University of Portsmouth - University of Duisburg

This article addresses the role of Argentinean business associations in decisions regarding free trade in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Based on previous research, the article summarizes Argentinean business-government relationships during the first years of Mercosur (1991-1994) and, afterwards, in the case of footwear non-tariff barriers implementation (1999-2009). The last case is analysed from the “arenas of power” approach of Theodore Lowi, interpreting the political dynamics of these decisions as a case of the “distributive arena”. Finally, the article advances certain characteristics of business-government relationships in the negotiations regarding the European Union-Mercosur Association Agreement and proposes a research line to analyse the political dynamics surrounding inter-regional negotiations from the “arenas of power” approach.