The role of advocacy coalitions on brazilian foreign trade policy

from the negotiations of FTAA to the association agreement Mercosur European Union

Abstract

In relation to the different guidelines and worldviews that are expressed in the trade policy-making, this article seeks to illuminate some points of the complex interrelation between governmental and social actors towards the international negotiations. Therefore, the theoretical frame mobilized is the advocacy coalition framework, which brings a helpful approach regarding to the transversality of the object, involving multiple actors and conflicts upon objectives, targets and mechanisms of the public action. The incidence of domestic distributive effects related to the trade policy decision-making feeds the social actors political mobilization in order to ensure their interests and axioms to be considered in the policy-making, as discussed at session one. In the Brazilian case, the constitution of Brazilian Business Coalition during the Free Trade American Area negotiations (FTAA) negotiations is illustrative in this sense and provides important analytical clues that are developed at session two. Then, we examine the range and the effects of these processes on the entrepreneur’s political mobilization itself and the outline of new polarities among them. At session four, we discuss the rearrange of power balance between the entrepreneur’s advocacy coalitions due to international commercial negotiations on behalf of agribusiness. On this path, the Association Agreement between Mercosur-European Union is indicative of this dynamic that allowed the agricultural sector to convert economic significance into political influence in the last years and decisively participate in the trade policy decision- making. Finally, we present some conclusions and possible research agendas on this theme.