Premium
Realist Power Europe? The EU in the Negotiations about China's and Russia's WTO Accession *
Author(s) -
ZIMMERMANN HUBERT
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2007.00749.x
Subject(s) - accession , negotiation , pledge , china , mercantilism , international trade , realism , political science , european union , international economics , preference , commercial policy , economics , law , philosophy , microeconomics , epistemology
What determines the preferences the EU represents in international trade negotiations? This article argues that realist theories can help to answer this question. Whereas, the majority of the literature on EU trade policy‐making looks at ‘domestic’ variables such as institutional factors and the influence of interest groups, a systemic approach such as realism is rarely employed. However, as the empirical case studies of China's and Russia's WTO accession show, in international trade negotiations the EU is motivated by geoeconomic and mercantilist considerations to an important degree, specifically the interest to maximize EU wealth relative to other powers. The article is a pledge for taking realism seriously in research on preference formation in EU external policies.