The European Union as an Actor in Bilateral Trade Relations: An Explanatory Assessment of the EU’s Actorness in CETA

Sammanfattning

From the mid-2000s onwards, deep and comprehensive bilateral ‘new generation’ free trade agreements (NGFTAs) became the central instrument of the European Union’s (EU) Common Commercial Policy (CCP). The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada was initially praised for its innovative scope and design and intended to serve as an archetype for future EU trade agreements. However, the agreement later encountered significant political and legal obstacles, exposing important operational weaknesses in the EU’s trade treaty-making process amid intense societal opposition across Member States. As a result, the contentious case of CETA generated substantial political controversy, raising doubts about the Union’s capacity to conclude ambitious trade agreements and, consequently, about its credibility as an international trade actor. By constructing a theoretical framework for evaluating EU trade actorness and applying qualitative document analysis to primary and secondary sources, this thesis argues that the EU demonstrated an overall medium degree of actorness in the context of CETA. On the one hand, the Union displayed strong authority and recognition throughout the negotiations. On the other hand, its autonomy was considerably constrained by limited independent action and sustained Member State pressure to classify CETA as a mixed agreement, thereby granting national actors de facto veto powers. Furthermore, mixity and thus unanimity produced only a moderate capability to formulate and maintain the agreement, relying heavily on provisional application, issue linkages, policy-based side payments and subsequent textual adjustments to secure approval. Finally, the EU’s opportunity structure remained moderate, shaped simultaneously by strategic and economic incentives favouring conclusion of the agreement and by intense anti-CETA mobilisation across Europe.