EXPLAINING THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY – AUSTRALIA WINE TRADE AGREEMENT. IMPACT OF NATIONAL PREFERENCES ON A CHANGE OF SCENE IN TRADE POLITICS
EXPLAINING THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY – AUSTRALIA WINE TRADE AGREEMENT. IMPACT OF NATIONAL PREFERENCES ON A CHANGE OF SCENE IN TRADE POLITICS

Summary/Abstract: In January 1994, the European Community and Australia signed the Agreement on Trade in Wine. Considering the dramatic changes in the international wine market, this strategy of policy coordination is hardly surprising. In the late 80s and early 90s the dynamic and highly competitive newcomers from countries like Australia and the USA have broken the domination of European producers for the first time. What is astonishing though is the fact that the arrangement was reached in the final phase of the Uruguay Round negotiations, three months before the signing of the Marrakech Agreement that regulated the trade of agricultural products. But neither Brussels nor Canberra settled for this first arrangement, and fourteen years later they signed another Wine Agreement. The article presents the results of analysis of the political debate and legal actions preceding the two Wine Agreements between the EC and Australia. The main focus is on the political and economic factors explaining the 1994 EC-Australia Agreement on Trade in Wine as well as the motivation for the update of this arrangement in 2008. The author argues that the agreement can be explained in terms of the interests of wine producers. The proposed explanation is based on Andrew Moravcsik’s theory of national preference formation.

• Details
• Contents