Beyond Trade – The Politics of Trade Agreements and Interstate Competition and Geoeconomics as a Basis for EU and US Preferential Trade Agreements

Preferential Trade Agreements (‘PTAs’) are, at their core, an expression of cordial relations between States. After all, States rarely engage in PTA negotiations with enemies. Nonetheless, PTA negotiations, even amongst allies, have become lengthier and increasingly arduous. This is because modern PTAs, with their extensive coverage in terms of sectors and market regulation, are not just complex, but also bring to the fore concerns from domestic groups about potential impacts on their respective business sectors’ competitiveness, and from other domestic groups over possible changes to fundamental standards in areas like health and safety and animal welfare, among others. This chapter explores the politics of interstate competition at play in PTA negotiations. It argues that geoeconomic competition has become an increasingly important consideration in modern PTAs, and points to some novelties in European Union (‘EU’) and United States (‘US’) PTAs that reflect this concern with ensuring their own competitiveness, in particular elements of the USMCA (‘US- Mexico-Canada PTA’) and the EU-United Kingdom (‘UK’) Trade and Cooperation Agreement (‘TCA’).