ABSTRACT
In spite of the substantial developments made in Trade SIA methodology since its inception in 1999, as noted in Chapter 3, Trade SIAs have not made the contribution to the European Union's trade negotiation position that might have been expected. Indeed, the EU position in trade negotiations remains objected to for its conservative and protectionist stance, particularly in the agricultural sector, and for its aggressive bargaining on market access in bilateral negotiations such as those undertaken under the controversial framework of Economic Partnership Agreements – all such positions being taken in a way against the conclusions of Trade SIAs. It looks as if Trade SIAs did little to ease the negotiation process, and the negotiators did not ask much of Trade SIAs. We argue in this chapter that these two failures are linked and, in particular, that Trade SIAs do little to benefit trade negotiations because they fail to address a number of important factors that cause negotiators to resist free trade today.
