Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2017
This special issue focuses on the difficulties of negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with contributions by scholars from different perspectives. This introductory article briefly examines the trend to mega-FTAs of which TTIP is a leading example. It then reviews the contributions to this special issue, drawing on an analytical approach that reflects extant work on transnational and transgovernmental relations. This approach, we contend, helps to understand the stark mismatch between the desire of some parties to negotiate binding trade rules on behind-the-border regulatory policies in certain key sectors of national economies and the progress made in TTIP talks. We then highlight the significance of some key actors in a case study of failed E.U. attempts to include financial sector reforms and associated regulatory processes in TTIP.
For research assistance we are indebted to Christine Jiang, Katheryn Sehyen Lee, Charles Joy LI, Kevin Ratana Patumwat, and Taylor Pilossoph. We thank Chris Ansell and participants at conferences in Berkeley and Brussels for comments on earlier drafts of this article. We are particularly grateful for editing help by Andrew Reddie and Somi Yi. All remaining errors are our own. Aggarwal's work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014S1A3A2044630). This project has been supported by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, the Institute of East Asian Studies, the Berkeley APEC Study Center, the E.U. Center for Excellence, the Clausen Center for International Business & Policy, UC Berkeley, and the University of St. Gallen.