Mega-Regional Trade Agreements (original) (raw)

2017, Oxford Scholarship Online

This chapter examines the extent to which mega-regional agreements constitute new orientations for EU external relations. It focuses on CETA, TTIP, and TiSA, which are the most important instruments in the context of mega-regional initiatives from the viewpoint of the EU, placing them, however, in the broader context of other mega-regional initiatives such as TPP and the RCEP. This chapter explains the main motivations underlying the worldwide move to regional agreements in the course of the last ten to fifteen years and expounds the main functions of mega-regional agreements. Furthermore, it sketches out the principal (geo-)political implications of today’s prime mega-regional projects. Finally, this introductory chapter argues that the reorientation attempted with these initiatives calls for a re-evaluation in view of the problematic experiences made during the negotiations on CETA and TTIP, in particular.