ESSEC IRENE ASIA and the EU Centre in Singapore will co-host a public lecture on "The EU in Trade Negotiations with ASEAN: Strategic Competitor or Normative Actor?" by Prof Hubert Zimmermann
ESSEC IRENE ASIA (Asian Branch of the Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation, ESSEC Business School) and the EU Centre in Singapore will co-host a public lecture on "The EU in Trade Negotiations with ASEAN: Strategic Competitor or Normative Actor?" by Prof Hubert Zimmermann (Philipp University of Marburg, Germany; Visiting Fellow, EU Centre in Singapore) on 24 February 2012 (Friday) at 5.30 pm (ESSEC Amphitheatre, National Library Building, Singapore).
Starting in April 2007, the European Union, The world's biggest trading power, pursued interregional trade negotiations with ASEAN countries for an EU-ASEAN free trade area (FTA).
This interregional track was however suspended in March 2009, and the EU began bilateral talks with selected ASEAN countries, starting first with Singapore and then Malaysia.
This shift from inter-regionalism towards bilateralism has been ascribed to various reasons: the diversity of ASEAN nations and their difficulties to reacth a common position; the EU's attempt to maximize its bargaining leverage, and finally its commitment to social and democratic norms, and the resistance by negotiating partners to such non-trade issues.
The FTA talks thus provide an opportunity to assess some of the central questions related to the pursuit of the EU's most consequential external policy: trade. Is it shaped primarily by strategic goals or do normative concerns play an increasing role?
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