Title: An Ideational Institutionalist Analysis of the Japanese Trade Policy-Making Process vis-à-vis the EC: Focus on the EC-Level Voluntary Export Moderation in 1983
Abstract:The existing literature on trade conflicts between Japan and the European Community (EC)/the European Union (EU) usually focuses on interest-based bargaining between Japanese and European actors. More...The existing literature on trade conflicts between Japan and the European Community (EC)/the European Union (EU) usually focuses on interest-based bargaining between Japanese and European actors. Moreover, studies on Japan-EC/EU institutional development tend to analyze long-term institutional changes from “issue-driven” relations amid trade conflicts to “issue-seeking” political and economic relations. However, few empirical studies conduct a deep analysis of the process of change in specific “issue-driven” institutions during the Japan-EC trade conflicts. Therefore, from a “micro” perspective, through a case study of the Japanese EC-level voluntary export moderation agreed in 1983, this study investigates how an “issue-driven” institution on Japanese voluntary export restraints (VERs) changed. Examining negotiations on the Japanese EC-level voluntary export moderation is important because this was a “turning point” as regards developing sectoral trade negotiations from EC Member States level to EC level.Read More