1. Civil Society Involvement in EU Trade Agreements: Mapping and explaining variation
Work in Progress
Deborah Martens, Myriam Oehri, Jan Orbie, Lore Van den Putte
GIFTA Conference, Brussels 7-8 July 2016
Social and Labour Impacts of Free Trade Agreements

2. Civil Society Meetings in EU Trade Agreements
EU – Central America Civil Society Forum, Brussels, June 2015
TRANSNATIONAL
Civil Society Meetings in EU Trade Agreements
EU - Peru-Colombia Domestic Advisory Group, Brussels, April 2016
DOMESTIC

3. Civil Society Involvement (CSI) in EU trade agreements
Increasingly relevant
Response to critics of (EU) free trade
‘Unique’ EU approach to promoting sustainable development through trade
Assumption: variation across agreements (previous research)

4. July 2016

5. Civil Society Involvement (CSI) in EU trade agreements
Increasingly relevant
Response to critics of (EU) free trade
‘Unique’ EU approach to promoting sustainable development through trade
Assumption: variation across agreements (previous research)
However, limited knowledge
To what extent is civil society involved?
How can we explain variety across agreements?
Two contributions:
Empirical: Mapping
Theoretical: Explaining
Focus on de jure provisions of labour-related civil society meetings in 10 post-Global Europe Agreements

6. Explaining variation: Hypotheses
HYP 1: (EU) Institutions
Path-dependency: The stronger commitments on labor provisions were under former EU trade arrangements, if any, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that country
HYP 2: (EU) Power
EU trading power: The more dependent a partner country is on the EU, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that partner country
HYP 3: (EU) Norms
EU normative power: The less a partner country protects the rights of workers, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that partner country
HYP 4: (3rd country) Democracy
Domestic resonance: The higher civil society participation is in a partner country, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that country
HYP 5: (3rd country) Competitiveness
EU interests: The higher the competiveness of a country, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that country
HYP 6: (3rd country) Labour costs
EU interests: The lower the labor costs are in a country, the higher will CSI be in an EU FTA with that country

7. Mapping: CSI-index
Inductive: Civil society provisions in 10 EU trade agreements
Selection relevant treaty provisions and identification of clusters:
Participants
Frequency
Interaction between Civil Society
Interaction Civil Society – Governments
Dispute Settlement Mechanisms
Development of codebook
Coding (and further elaboration codebook): two independent scholars
Further discussions and adjustments by the research team

8. Significant variation  how to explain?

9. Operationalization of hypotheses
HYP 2: EU Trading Power: Asymmetric Interdependence
The higher the difference between the dependence of a third country from the EU market and the EU’s dependence from that country’s market, the higher the EU’s trading power towards that country Source: Top trading partners in total goods (2015) in Third Country – Trade Statistics – EU Reports
HYP 3: EU Norms: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Practice (Labor Rights Indicator, 2012) The FACB Indicators are based on coding the findings of nine sources, entailing five basic elements: the premises of definitional validity, reproducibility and transparency, the 108 evaluation criteria used to code violations in law and practice, the textual sources selected for coding, the general and source-specific coding rules and the weighting scheme developed through a two-stage survey of internationally recognized experts. (Score 1-10; 1=best; 10=worst) Source: and Sari and Kucera, 2011; 2016
HYP 4: 3rd Country Democracy: Civil Society Participation (Transformation Index of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2016) It measures the extent to which the political leadership enables the participation of civil society in the political process (Agenda setting, Policy formulation, Deliberation and decision-making, Policy implementation, Performance monitoring) (Score: 1-10; 1=best; 10 worst) Source:
HYP 5: 3rd Country Competitiveness: Global Competitiveness (Global Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum, 2016) The Global Competitiveness Report assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. It remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide. Source:
HYP 6: 3rd Country Minimum Wage: Minimum Wage (Doing Business Report, World Bank, 2016) (USD per month) Source:

10. Civil Society Participation
HYP1
HYP2
HYP3
HYP4
HYP5
HYP6
Post-South Korea
EU Trading Power
FACB in Practice
Civil Society Participation
Competitive-ness
Minimum Wage
Outcomes
Canada
2014
9 (2/11)
1.41
(no data)
5.3 (13.)
1800,43 25
South Korea
2010
5 (3/8)
5.99 6
5.0 (26.)
882,67 21
Georgia
76 (1/77)
3.31
4.2 (66.)
23,17 18
Moldova
67 (1/68)
1.17 7
4.0 (84.)
121,76
Vietnam
2015
19 (2/21)
10.00 3
4.3 (56.)
142,45 17
Ukraine
28 (1/29)
4.48
4.9 (79.)
119,63 16
Central America
2012 11
Panama
69 (2/71)
5.18 5
4.4 (50.)
477,55
Guatemala
85 (3/88)
8.36
4.1 (78)
384,17
El Salvador
117 (4/121)
3.84
3.9 (95.)
215,82
Costa Rica
68 (2/70)
2.61 8
4.3 (52.)
569,86
Honduras
92 (2/94)
3.16
4.0 (88.)
456,98
Nicaragua
125 (5/130)
2.69 4
3.8 (108)
209,15
Singapore
13 (3/16)
1.23
5.7 (2.)
0.00  10
Colombia – Peru
Colombia
38 (2/40)
6.29
4.2 (69.)
 335,93
Ecuador
2016
58 (2/60)
2.05
4.1 (76.)
403,16 

11. Provisional findings Mapping: Explaining Significant variation of CSI
From ‘participation’ to ‘interaction’?
Explaining
HYPs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6: clearly rejected
HYP 4: largely confirmed, except Vietnam

12. Discussion
Vietnam?
European Parliament?
Degree of integration?

13. THANK YOU Centre for EU Studies – Ghent University Jan.Orbie@UGent.be