ABSTRACT
Trade policy is a political minefield. Various types of sectoral economic interests and political interests can intersect and derail a policy initiative favoring unfettered liberalization. The history of EU–Canada attempts to move towards liberalization agreements provide ample proof of such evolving difficulties. Most recently, the issue of the seal hunt has become one of severe rhetoric and even action where the Canadian government turned to the World Trade Organization in order to lift the ban against seal products imposed by the European Parliament. The seal conflict will not lead to the death of CETA but it needs to be considered one of the many political arenas that may be used to heat up the negotiation climate. As argued in many chapters of this book, the hurdles for CETA are high in both corners, and so are the interests of many economic and political sectors on both sides of the Atlantic in reaching a successful agreement. It would be misleading, however, to argue that only political and economic concerns of individual actors or sectors drive the emerging challenges and opportunities of CETA. CETA is also about finding a favorable position in the rapidly changing global political economy. It needs to be stressed that global macroeconomic processes heavily influence costs and benefits of cross-border transactions of all kinds, and thus emphasize views and preference formations of economic actors. Due to the tremendous change in the global economy since the start of negotiations, which coincided with the Great Recession, CETA negotiations are extremely vulnerable to global macroeconomic turbulences.
