Investigating Political Drivers of PTAs: Convergences and Divergences in the US and EU Trade Strategies in East Asia from 2001 onwards

This thesis examines the political drivers of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in East Asia. It investigates the extent to which the US and the EU have shaped and been shaped by PTA developments since the early 2000s. This period has witnessed a rapid proliferation of PTAs followed by a noticeable slowdown in their expansion. The research question animating the thesis is: why did the EU and the US appear to pursue similar trade strategies towards South Korea, but very different ones towards Japan and China? The thesis employs an IPE approach that integrates system-level and domestic-level explanations. It draws on the IPE variants of realism and liberal institutionalism, together with domestic-level theories that emphasise the influence of interests, institutions, and ideas on trade policymaking. Methodologically, the research combines qualitative analysis of documentary sources with interviews conducted across the three case studies, allowing the thesis to link theoretical arguments to empirical evidence. Ultimately, the thesis offers a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the IPE of trade literature. The thesis develops a theoretical synthesis which integrates both systemic and domestic explanatory factors to explain how major powers formulate trade strategies. It challenges the prevalent assumption that competitive liberalisation drove the EU and the US trade strategies in East Asia. Even during the height of the competitive liberalisation narrative, which indicates that Washington and Brussels would accelerate trade negotiations in East Asia to offset each other’s influence, their policies largely reflected parallel but independent trajectories. The South Korea case shows that the simultaneity of their negotiations created the illusion of competitive liberalisation, but the EU and the US are not converging or influencing each other’s strategies. The Japan case further supports this trend, as the EU and the US followed separate directions influenced by their own domestic constraints. The China case demonstrates how both actors adjusted their policies in response to China’s rise, but in divergent ways, with the US policy shifting towards confrontation and decoupling, and the EU adopting a balanced and risk-mitigating approach. Collectively, the case studies show that domestic politics are of paramount importance in influencing the trade strategies of both powers.