The Bargaining Triangle: Negotiations on Free Trade Agreements between the EU-Mercosur and the United States-Mercosur. The Case of Brazil's Foreign Policy

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Why has neither the EU nor the United States been able to conclude an agreement on free trade with Mercosur? Many factors have affected the negotiation process and its outcome, and one of them is the role of Brazil. The aim of this thesis is to describe and to explain which factors, based on different theoretical concepts that have influenced the Brazilian foreign policy towards the negotiations between the EU-Mercosur and the United States-Mercosur, and its outcome. To examine the research question, this thesis has used three different theoretical approaches that are associated with external and internal factors to the state. The realist perspective argues that the stalled negotiations between the EU-Mercosur and the United States-Mercosur originate from Brazil's aspirations of emerging as a regional power. An agreement on free trade with the EU or the United States would diminish Brazil?s leverage in the region and in particular threaten its autonomy. On the contrary, the complex interdependence theory emphasizes that the stalled negotiations depends on Brazil's commitment to WTO negotiations and the contemporary failure of reaching consensus in the DDA. Last, the domestic oriented theory underlines that the FTA negotiations have...