On brinkmanship and trade negotiations-thread.
The argument has been made that the EU often engages in last minute brinkmanship in trade negotiations.I disagree.
The EU system of governance of trade negotiations involves regular consultations of member states and debriefings of the European Parliament.
Member States hate last minute surprises and that is why the Commision as a trade negotiator always tries to narrow the issues that are left for final arbitration.
The EU-Korea negotiations were concluded in a bit more than two years.The last 3 months were focused on finding a solution to a short list of about 10 sensitive issues on which a balance had to be found amongst the interests of the two parties.Everything else was essentially done
I remember my Korean counterpart explaining that negotiations with the US had been very different.Most chapters of Korus remained fully open until the last marathon week of negotiations.
During the TTIP negotiations,I explained often to my US counterparts the importance of this difference in negotiating methods.This point is well reflected in the TTIP chapter of Tony Gardner’s last book on EU-Us relations during his time as US Ambassador.
The reason why trade negotiations often take very long is that the status quo has attractions.Any trade deal implies concessions on sensitive issues and governments like to delay the day of reckoning.But leaving everything for last minute is not a good tactic.
