Trade Diplomacy DOC

Title	Trade Diplomacy
Author	Diana Tussie
Pages	17
File Size	168 KB
File Type	DOC
Total Downloads	51
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TRADE DIPLOMACY DIANA TUSSIE1 Pre publication draft for The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy , 2012 “Free trade is God’s diplomacy. There is no other certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace.” , Richard Cobden, cotton trader , British politician,originator of the Cobden Chevalier Treat...

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TRADE DIPLOMACY DIANA TUSSIE1 Pre publication draft for The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy , 2012 "Free trade is God's diplomacy. There is no other certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace." , Richard Cobden, cotton trader , British politician,originator of the Cobden Chevalier Treaty, 1857 "Dieu est mort, l'OMC l'a remplacé!".Demonstrators, WTO headquarters, 1999 1. Introduction Trade arouses passions in many directions; is it the reason for going to war or the pillar of peace? Yet traders have always been diplomats. International trade diplomacy is as old as trade itself. What has turned so dramatically since Cobden articulated his vision of free trade as God's diplomacy? The aim of this essay is to highlight the potential uniqueness of trade, on the one hand and, on the other, the broader transformations in terms of the range of participants and the patterns of interaction they now deploy. I concentrate on specificity, novelty and change. Trade, allocates economic resources between private interests. It creates winners and losers leading to demands as well as claims for compensation. Trade negotiations are about who gets what and how. Even Cobden´s free trade ideal is a political balancing act between higher notions of the public good and the interests of specific constituencies; and even more a question of distribution than optimality. This implies normative choices about whom should benefit and whom should bear the burdens of adjustment. In this sense, the 'free' trade ideal and the 'protectionist' backwater are constructions at best made in heaven (or hell). Real preferences are pragmatic choices situated along a continuum where neither one ever reigns supreme. Trade diplomacy as such is concerned with the management of trade regimes as well as the market factors affected by the regime. A distinctive feature of trade and economic diplomacy at large (See Lee and Mills in this volume) is that market actors are involved in the push pull of diplomatic efforts, either at the forefront or the rearguard, either tacitly or explicitly. Trade diplomacy thus faces tensions between political authorities and markets. Market interests will drive diplomacy but political considerations can also outweigh trade interests. For example, many Muslim majority countries have yet to establish trade relations with Israel and likewise many countries with close ties to Israel have resisted recognizing the State of Palestine. In the opposite direction , in order not to upset trade relations , when the government of Bangladesh allowed the establishment of a private business office from Taiwan , copious diplomatic efforts were deployed to confirm the "one-China policy" (meaning Taiwan is recognized as part of China) . 1 The generous and diligent research assistance of Linda Curran is acknowledged with gratitude. 1...