Geo-Economic Motives in EU FTA’s with the Asia–Pacific: More Discourse Than Design?

Contemporary trade discussions are increasingly imbued with geo-economic language, suggesting negotiations over free trade agreements have become a strategic endeavour informed by concerns over great power rivalry. Throughout the volume, we explored the extent to which EU negotiations with countries in the Asia–Pacific are guided by such ideas. This chapter synthesises the findings by the contributors to the volume and reflects critically on the importance of geo-economic motives as a driver in trade negotiations. Our findings suggest a rather modest impact, which mostly pertains to decisions over partner selection and not as much to agreement design. We situate the relevance of the volume within the broader IPE scholarship, highlighting our key contribution and identifying some blind spots in the literature. Finally, we lay out the emerging research agenda stemming from our analysis and make several conjectures regarding the geo-economic turn in trade policy in light of recent empirical developments in the EU and beyond.