GPPi discusses EU-Africa trade cooperation at international convention

GPPi Research Associate Clara Weinhardt presented two papers on European Union-Africa trade cooperation at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, held in Toronto from 26 – 29 March 2014.

The first panel, titled ​“Trade and Contestation in International Institutions,” highlighted the way in which negotiation processes themselves impact trade and financial cooperation. Weinhardt presented the findings of her research on the contentious negotiations of a so-called Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and West Africa. When these negotiations were initiated in 2002 there was much talk of the positive development effects that the trade agreement would have. Yet, no regional agreement was reached at the end of 2007, the originally envisaged negotiating deadline.

Weinhardt argued that we can best understand the impasse as the result of the different ​“games” that the EU and West Africa were playing. Both sides held conflicting expectations about the values and economic paradigms at stake in trade negotiations between developed and developing countries. Failure to acknowledge these fundamentally divergent views made it very difficult to reach a compromise agreement.

Weinhardt presented a second, related paper on a panel titled ​“Norm Development and its Discontents.” She argued that the linkage between different issue-areas represents an under-studied source of norm contestation. Adding more policy sectors to the negotiation table is, contrary to rationalist predictions, often a source of conflict.

This perspective helps us to better understand why Economic Partnership Agreements became one of the most contentious issues of EU-Africa relations in the past decade. The EU intended to sell these trade agreements as ​“tools for development” to the African side. But framing trade in terms of development opened the door to contestation. This is because trade cooperation and development cooperation are built on conflicting behavioral and regulatory norms, such as reciprocity and asymmetry. Disagreement over the extent to which the EU should make concessions or include financial aid as part of the deal has rendered the negotiation process between the partners more difficult.

Learn more about GPPi’s research on Innovation in Development.