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Questions

  • Research on U.S. states as actors in transatlantic trade policy, with specific focus on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
  • So far: Lack of attention to states’ transatlantic trade policy preferences (mostly on trade promotional activities) and how they are represented in U.S., EU
  • Goal: Discover means and motivations of states’ interest representation; analyze variation among states (trade policy vs. trade promotion) and conflicts with federal government

Findings

  • States use various means to represent their trade policy interests, e.g. consultations in the Intergovernmental Policy Advisory Committee on Trade (IGPAC), letters, personal contacts to U.S. federal and EU actors
  • States’ trade promotion efforts: Dominating driver of engagement with EU actors (businesses); largely in harmony with U.S. federal government
  • States’ trade policy efforts: Some efforts on issues encroaching on state regulation such as investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, procurement; conflicts with U.S. federal actors over competencies in U.S. federalism
  • Key drivers for states to become engaged in transatlantic trade issues
    1. State economic structure: Small but vocal group of state executives emphasizing economic benefits of the TTIP based on need for agricultural export markets
    2. Ideological preferences: Small but vocal group of progressive state legislators warning of negative deregulatory effects of the TTIP concerning state regulatory powers
    3. Personal backgrounds: Individual-level motivation to work in international trade

Methodology

Qualitative semi-structured interviews
U.S. states with respondents in the sample
~ %
of state population and EU exports covered
State officials in the states, Washington, D.C., and trade offices in Europe
56%
State association officials
17%
Academia/think tanks
11%
Federal officials in DC and Europe
8%
Business representatives
Web Designer 5%
EU officials
3%
  • Selection bias by focusing only on states actively engaged on TTIP: Alleviated by triangulating interview data with data from official state documents, trade statistics and media output
  • Combination of literatures from international relations, federalism and paradiplomacy used

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APA

Jaursch, Julian. (2018). U.S. Federal States in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Policy Making: Actors, Access, Aspirations. (Ph.D.). Freie Universität Berlin. Retrieved from http://www.transatlanticties.com/.

Chicago

Jaursch, Julian. 2018. “U.S. Federal States In Transatlantic Trade And Investment Policy Making: Actors, Access, Aspirations”. Ph.D., Freie Universität Berlin. Retrieved from http://www.transatlanticties.com/.

Harvard

Jaursch, Julian. (2018). U.S. Federal States in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Policy Making: Actors, Access, Aspirations. Ph.D. Freie Universität Berlin. Retrieved from http://www.transatlanticties.com/.

MLA

Jaursch, Julian. “U.S. Federal States In Transatlantic Trade And Investment Policy Making: Actors, Access, Aspirations”. Freie Universität Berlin, 2018. Retrieved from http://www.transatlanticties.com/.