Civil Society Participation in Trade Policy-making in Latin America: The Case of the Environmental Movement

Abstract

Abstract:In recent years, and particularly perhaps since the 'battle of Seattle' in 1999, the issue of civil society participation in trade policy has attracted increasing policy and academic attention. Much of this attention has been drawn to the question of institutional access and channels of participation and representation within the WTO. The challenge is one that has faced other global institutions such as the World Bank and IMF for a number of years (O'Brien et al 2000).Improving the transparency of and access to decision-making in the context of up-scaling civil society participation is not exclusively a global challenge, however. There has been a great deal of activity at the regional level around trade negotiations and increasingly in Latin America with the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) following in the wake of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and Mercosur (Mercado Común del Sur). Few institutional reforms have been brought about without significant pressure from civil society, however. Some challenges are common to all movements attempting to participate and make their voice heard in the sensitive and traditionally closed arena of trade negotiations. But others are unique, and reflect distinct regional political histories, previous experiences of mobilisation and prevailing social and material realities. The analysis will therefore attempt to identify key factors which shape these dynamics. These include;• key strategic issues within the movements and among groups themselves (diversity of strategies, politics of coalition-building, patterns of influence and engagement/non-engagement) • the organisation of institutional access (rights, representation, process, decision-making)• key economic and political regional dynamics which affect each of the above (differences between and within individual countries regarding key issues and attitudes towards participation)By comparing across different sets of trade negotiations and institutional arrangements it will be possible to identify what the key drivers and shapers of change appear to be. In other words, the extent to which these appear to derive from the nature of the institution or process itself, the strategies of the movement engaging with it, or more likely still, some combination of both these elements. The challenge is to account for diverse forms of engagement and non-engagement and, more importantly, to derive lessons from them about the possibility of constructing more effective, sustainable and transparent mechanisms of participation and representation in trade policy based on experiences to date in Latin America.

Child poverty, evidence and policy

“…For example, the high level of technical expertise required to engage in trade or climate change policy debates provides different policy process dynamics than do policies on social protection (e.g. Newell and Tussie, 2006;Pomares and Jones, 2009). Different approaches to understanding the dynamics of policy processes encompass the three different conceptualisations of power noted in Chapter 1: (i) material political economy; (ii) discourse and the socio-political construction of knowledge; and (iii) power as embedded in social structures and institutions.…”

Democratising Trade Politics in the Americas: Insights from the Women's, Environmental and Labour Movements

“…Access to resources to train personnel with the kinds of skills required to make significant contributions to debating trade policies with government representatives is critical. North-South cleavages are often reproduced between resource-endowed NGOs from the North and organisations from the South which in most cases are short of material resources to be able to keep up with the rapidly evolving trade development agenda (Newell and Tussie 2006). By contrast, large corporations with vast amounts of resources are in a position to employ professional lobbyists to represent their interests in the negotiations and thus benefit to a greater degree from mechanisms of participation for civil society organisations which were originally deemed as means to open up trade processes to public involvement.…”

“…In addition to promoting women participation, it can be argued that the emergence, inclusion and subsequent gender awareness of development and trade governance is largely seen as a result of multi-level contacts among female politicians and public servants, feminist and women's groups and activists and not a top-down governmental initiative (Álvarez 1998;Domínguez and Icaza 2006;Newell and Tussie 2006). This is an especially complex task due to the fact that gender concerns have not got the same leverage as environment and labour concerns, in the regional intergovernmental mechanisms within the NAFTA framework (see subsequent case studies).…”

“…They can be explained by three interrelated factors: (i) a widespread assumption of a gender neutral market among institutionalised circuits of power (e.g. like in the UAOS and Unidad cases), (ii) a general failure to create explicit links between the broader feminist movement's 'traditional' areas of struggle, such as domestic violence, abortion, political party quotas, and free trade issues; and (iii) in the case of Latin American countries, to the weakness of the feminist movement within leftist circles (Vargas 1994;Domínguez and Icaza 2006;Icaza 2006Icaza , 2007Icaza et al 2006;Macdonald 2002;Newell and Tussie 2006).…”

Does Democratization Alter the Policy Process? Trade Policymaking in Brazil

“…At the same time, trade negotiations are among the least transparent and most ideologically uniform areas of international relations. 15 Trade policy is moreover important for Brazil. Specifically, import restraints were a significant pillar of the import-substituting industrialization policies pursued by Brazil's modernizing military regime and its civilian predecessors over more than three decades.…”