Description
Thinking about the emergence of a negotiated free trade agreement (FTA) elicits images of heads of state shaking hands over a document. This common media imagery signals the agreement's significance to the signatory states and acknowledges the coming together of the states as they jointly add ink to a shared text. Yet, when one reads an FTA, it becomes clear that the document from the photo op is not the technical FTA text but a symbolic prop – as transformative as it may be. So, while the image of signing an FTA holds social value, it is but a near-final step in the FTA making. Mapping the process allows us to understand FTAs as more than a text but a network of associating people, activities, and intentions. Understanding how these things interact opens new possibilities of inquiry beyond what the text says. How does that FTA come to be in the first place? What and how are actors involved in the policymaking process, and from the subcentral governments specifically? This paper answers these questions in the context of the UK-Canada FTA negotiation.
This paper developed out of my doctoral research where I used ethnographically informed methods to enquire into the making of the role of the Canadian provincial and UK devolved governments in the negotiation of the UK-Canada FTA. Despite the collapse of those negotiations, much was learned by working directly with these government officials for nearly two years. This paper shows how the role of these officials emerged over time. Also, officials agentially created strategies to advocate for their jurisdiction during the various phases of the negotiations, albeit with varying levels of success. As a result, this interpretivist-based paper contributes to discussions on trade policymaking, public administration and policy processes, and multilevel governance in Canada and the UK.
