Trade Paradiplomacy and the Politics of International Economic Law: The Inclusion of Quebec and the Exclusion of Wallonia in the CETA Negotiations

ABSTRACT

International trade negotiations are no longer largely limited to federal government's constitutional jurisdictions. In this context, substate governments, like Quebec and Wallonia, are aware that their ability to formulate and implement policy, are subject to negotiations in trade talks. This article compares the role of Quebec and Wallonia in the CETA negotiations. While Wallonia was able to force the inclusion of an interpretative legal instrument to clarify certain parts of CETA, Quebec, like the other Canadian provinces, was able to influence the negotiation from within. Quebec's influence was felt on many issues such as regulatory cooperation, certification, labour mobility, cultural diversity, but also on issues that were ultimately left outside the agreement. The comparison provides important lessons: the inclusion in the negotiating process of substate governments, like Quebec, makes it easier for them to make important concessions during the negotiation but also to accept the outcome of the negotiation. Moreover, substate governments are important actors in legitimising these trade treaties. When they strongly oppose them, like Wallonia did, it has a deleterious effect on the legitimacy of the agreement.

KEYWORDS:

• Trade paradiplomacy
• international economic law
• inclusion and exclusion
• Quebec
• Wallonia
• CETA negotiations

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In may 2017, the European court of Justice in the case of the Free trade agreement with Singapore ruled that some part of the agreements – portfolio investment and dispute settlement between investors and state- cannot be ratify without the EU member state consent.

2 Anonymous interview on Toronto, June 2017.

3 Anonymous interview, June 2014.

4 Anonymous interview in Québec city, June, 2014.

5 Anonymous interview in Montréal and Québec city, June 2014.

6 Anonymous interview Montréal, Mai 2009 and June 2014.

7 Anonymous interview in Brussels January 2011 and 2016.

8 Anonymous interview on Toronto, Montréal and Quebec City, June 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Stéphane Paquin

Stéphane Paquin is Full Professor at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) in Montréal. He has written, co-written or edited 33 books and academic journal, about paradiplomacy and international and comparative political economy including Theories of International Political Economy (Oxford University Press 2016). He has received numerous awards, including a Canada Research Chair in International and Comparative Political Economy and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the State University of New York. He has taught in many universities, including Northwestern University in Chicago and Sciences Po Paris. In 2014, he was the President of the local organising committee of the World Congress of Political Science Montréal-2014 (IPSA).