Professor Patrick Messerlin (Professor of economics at Sciences Po, and director, Groupe
d’Economie Mondiale at Sciences Po (GEM)) gave a special lecture on April 30th, 2012
at the GL-Room. He delivered his lecture on the European Union that has been struggling
for remaining relevant in East Asia since the financial crisis.
The impact of the financial crisis in 2008 was global, but it was especially severe for the
southern European countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal that eventually have
experienced rising debt. And debt-ridden Europe now is embarked in an urgent quest of
growth. What the members need at this moment is domestic pro-growth reform agenda.
However, along with financial instability, Professor Messerlin pointed out that these countries
have one thing in common. That was low regulatory quality. Also, it is not easy for countries
to domestically amend law and regulation. They need some push factor to do so.
Therefore, he argued that trade policy could have such impact. And “Comatose Doha”
leaves only the option of preferential trade agreements (PTA).
For choosing the right partners, Professor Messerlin introduced two different approaches.
The first one was the growth approach centered on EU domestic interests that focused on
a long term view (2030) and what it meant for the EU. The second one was the TransPacific
Patnership(TPP) approach centered on the international arena. He concluded that the EU’s
PTA policy should focus on Japan and Taiwan, because Japan has a big economy enough
to be a push factor for domstic law and regulation amendments. In case of Taiwan, the PTA
with Taiwan could be a good practice before negotiating PTA with China that should have
the biggest impact on the EU’s economy.
After his lecture a Q&A session was held where many students and professors raised various
questions regarding the EU’s PTA policies and feasibility of TPP showing very high interest
in content of his special lecture.