EUのFTA農業分野交渉における欧州委員会の役割

CETAをめぐる政治過程を事例に

抄録

　This paper discusses the role of the European Commission （EC） and its strategy in EU’s FTA agricultural sector negotiations, which is an important matter due to the dominance of the Council of the European Union. The EC is entrusted with the function of negotiating with extraterritorial countries; however, its authority is constrained by the negotiating guidelines of the Council and by “police-patrol oversight.”

　However, the Council is a collective actor consisting of member states’ governments, making it difficult to coordinate interests. Hence, it is extremely difficult to reach a consensus to liberalize beyond the status quo, especially for issues regarding which some member states have protectionist preferences. The agricultural sector is a prime example of such an issue. It has rarely been possible to achieve a high level of liberalization in the agricultural sector with countries whose agriculture is more internationally competitive than that of the EU. This paper examines the EC’s role by focusing on the agricultural sector negotiations of EU-Canada FTA （CETA）, which began provisional application in 2017, a rare example of successfully bringing an extremely difficult negotiation to agreement.

　In terms of method, this paper is a deviant case study that aims to generate new hypotheses by analyzing a case that is difficult to explain using existing theories. CETA is not only an empirically rare case for the EU but also a deviant one that cannot be explained by existing theories such as information asymmetries, the amount of discretionary power held by the EC due to split preferences of the Council, or the influence of interest groups and civil society on trade policy. This paper seeks to refine the existing theories by tracing the process of CETA negotiation.

　The new hypothesis presented in this paper is as follows. In FTA negotiations with countries whose agricultural products are more internationally competitive than those of the EU, the EC places emphasis on bringing agriculture-related rules in the agreement, such as intellectual property rights and food safety, closer to the EU’s common rules, or on making the partner country recognize the EU’s intra-regional rules. By linking rule-related issues with those related to market access for agricultural products, an FTA can be concluded while achieving a high degree of liberalization of market access for agricultural products.