EU and Mercosur vis a vis the Trade Agreement. Remarks from the institutional perspective

The member States of Mercosur are currently negotiating a Trade Agreement with the EU, as part of the process towards a comprehensive bi-regional Association Agreement. In 2016, the EU and Mercosur members exchanged offers, followed by a negotiation round. The next round will be held in October 2017...

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Autores:
Querci, Isabella
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2017
Institución:
Universidad Externado de Colombia
Repositorio:
Biblioteca Digital Universidad Externado de Colombia
Idioma:
spa
OAI Identifier:
oai:bdigital.uexternado.edu.co:001/8444
Acceso en línea:
https://bdigital.uexternado.edu.co/handle/001/8444
https://doi.org/10.18601/16577558.n26.05
Palabra clave:
European Union
Mercosur
trade agreement
institutions
WTO
statehood
civil society
Rights
openAccess
License
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Description
Summary:The member States of Mercosur are currently negotiating a Trade Agreement with the EU, as part of the process towards a comprehensive bi-regional Association Agreement. In 2016, the EU and Mercosur members exchanged offers, followed by a negotiation round. The next round will be held in October 2017; while awaiting for political developments, it is worth anticipating some challenges to come, especially from a legal perspective. Both actors have a multilayered system for decision-making, requiring the consensus of a multiplicity of governmental actors and thus enabling them to convey. Furthermore, current dialogues consider a broad range of issues, which were also covered by different EU’s agreements with other trading partners. These agreements received critiques from the civil society, which are worth to reflect upon, considering that the trade agreement is due to impact the general negotiation for the bi-regional Association Agreement. The paper develops this reflection from a twofold perspective: that of the institutional nature of EU and Mercosur and that of the democratic deficit in the overall negotiation process.