ABSTRACT
This chapter examines strategic behaviour in trade policy and about forum-switching. It focuses on the strategy of the US government and the European Commission which have been the main protagonists in the setting of agendas and switching of fora. The chapter argues the counter-strategies of the Third World middle powers. It covers northern activist strategies and southern defence strategies in the context of forum-shifting. The US government and the European Union (EU) Commission have been at the forefront in agenda-setting during the Doha Round. Arenas were switched at the multilateral level and from the multilateral to plurilateral and bilateral arenas. Forum switching at the multilateral level has mainly been motivated by the calculus that involving a new arena might increase the chance of pushing through the preferred set of norms. In a number of arenas, Third World middle powers have blocked negotiations on sensitive points in plurilateral or bilateral negotiations.
