Abstract
At both the multilateral and regional levels, there have been efforts to address the democratic deficit in trade negotiations. One such example is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries where civil society participation was enshrined in the Cotonou Agreement. Yet, the CARIFORUM–EU EPA attracted much criticism from civil society. The paper argues that civil society failed to affect the outcome of the EPA because they participated in the process within a deliberative democratic framework which did not allow for emancipation or a challenge to global economic power and structural considerations in the negotiations; neither did it achieve citizen empowerment and ownership. We advocate the practice of participatory democracy in trade policy decision making—an ideal space for citizen participation—the former holding greater promise for influencing the trade policy agenda.
Zusammenfassung
Sowohl auf den multilateralen als auch den regionalen Ebenen hat es Bemühungen gegeben, um das demokratische Defizit bei Handelsgesprächen anzugehen. Ein Beispiel dafür ist das Wirtschaftspartnerschaftsabkommen (WPA) zwischen der Europäischen Union und afrikanischen, karibischen und pazifischen Ländergruppen, in denen die bürgergesellschaftliche Partizipation im Cotonou-Abkommen verankert wurde. Doch erhielt das CARIFORUM-EU WPA viel Kritik seitens der Bürgergesellschaft. In dem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass die Bürgergesellschaft keinen Einfluss auf das Resultat des WPA hatte, da in dem Prozess innerhalb eines beratenden demokratischen Rahmenwerks eine Emanzipation oder eine Herausforderung für eine globale Wirtschaftsmacht sowie strukturelle Erwägungen in den Verhandlungen unmöglich waren; auch wurde keine Bürgereinbindung und -verantwortung erreicht. Wir befürworten die Praxis partizipatorischer Demokratie bei handelspolitischen Entscheidungen - ein idealer Bereich für Bürgerpartizipation. Diese ist für die Beeinflussung der handelspolitischen Agenda vielversprechender.
Resumen
Tanto a nivel multilateral como regional, ha habido esfuerzos para abordar el déficit democrático en las negociaciones comerciales. Un ejemplo es el Acuerdo de Asociación Económica (Economic Partnership Agreement, ““PA”” entre la Unión Europea y el grupo de países de África, Caribe y Pacífico en el que la participación de la sociedad civil quedó consagrada en el acuerdo de Cotonou. Sin embargo, el EPA CARIFORUM-UE atrajo muchas críticas de la sociedad civil. El presente documento argumenta que la sociedad civil fracasó a la hora de influir en los resultados del EPA porque participaron en el proceso dentro de un marco democrático de deliberación que no permitió la emancipación o un cuestionamiento del poder económico mundial y de las consideraciones estructurales en las negociaciones; ni obtuvo el empoderamiento ni la apropiación ciudadana. Abogamos por la práctica de la democracia participativa en la toma de decisiones de políticas comerciales - un espacio ideal para la participación ciudadana - ya que ofrece mayores esperanzas de influir en la agenda de la política comercial.
摘要
为了解决贸易磋商中的民主缺陷,不但存在多边层次的努力,也有地区层次 的努力,例如,非洲加勒比太平洋组织之间的经济合作伙伴协议(EPA), 在该协议中, 民间团队的参与被供奉于科托努协议中,但是,加欧经济伙伴协定饱受民间团体批评。 本文论认为, 由于民间团体是在民主框架中参与这一进程,而这一框架中不允许在磋商中解放或挑战全球经济大国,不允许结构性考虑, 因此民间团体并不能影响EPA的结果。 民间团体也没有被赋予公民权和所有权。 在贸易政策决策中,我们提倡实行参与性民主——民参与的理想空间——与性民主提高了影响贸易政策日程的希望。
ملخص
على المستويات المتعددة الأطراف والإقليمية على حد سواء، لقد كانت هناك جهود لمعالجة العجز الديمقراطي في المفاوضات التجارية. أحد الأمثلة على ذلك هو إتفاق الشراكة الإقتصادية (EPA) بين الاتحاد الأوروبي وأفريقيا ، الكاريبي ،المحيط الهادئ من البلدان التي تجسدت مشاركة المجتمع المدني في إتفاق كوتونو. فوق ذلك مجموعة من 15 بلد في منطقة البحر الكاريبي (CARIFORUM) – و إتفاق الشراكة الإقتصادية (EPA) للإتحاد الأوروبي إجتذبت كثير من الإنتقادات من المجتمع المدني. يجادل البحث أن المجتمع المدني لم يؤثر على نتيجة إتفاق الشراكة الإقتصادية (EPA) لأنهم شاركوا في إجراءات في إطار ديمقراطي تداولي الذي لم يسمح للتحرر أو تحدي لقوة إقتصادية عالمية والإعتبارات الهيكلية في المفاوضات؛ كما أنه لم يحقق تمكين المواطن والملكية. ندعو إلى ممارسة ديمقراطية تشاركية في صنع القرار السياسي التجاري - مساحة مثالية لمشاركة المواطنين - أرصدة سابقة لعقد وعود كبيرة للتأثير على جدول أعمال السياسة التجارية.
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Notes
Invited spaces are those created by officials and policy makers for civil society engagement.
This section examining how civil society participated in the EPA process is based on the work of Montoute (2009).
See Girvan (2010) for a discussion of the “technification” of the negotiations which excluded ordinary people from the participatory process.
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Montoute, A. Deliberate or Emancipate? Civil Society Participation in Trade Policy: The Case of the CARIFORUM–EU EPA. Voluntas 27, 299–321 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9640-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9640-9