The Eu's Trade Battles with Russia in Times of Crisis: A Powerless Giant or an Effective Market Power?

The debate about the EU’s global influence has focused on its potential as a global trade actor which builds in particular on the attractiveness of the EU’s single market. The EU’s strong position in trade empowers it also in its political negotiations on non-trade issues. With the global financial crisis, the image of the EU as an attractive partner and role model took a dent. The EU has been most effective in and through trade in EU accession candidate states and much less effective where the strong incentives of membership are lacking. A state that has since the 1990s highlighted the limits to the EU’s influence in and through trade is Russia. The political deadlock over Ukraine and limited effects of the EU’s sanctions on Russia’s actions towards Ukraine underlined the EU’s difficulties. An extensive list of trade disputes (SPS issues, Siberian overflight charges, WTO disputes) with Russia has put into doubt the EU’s ability to achieve trade objectives despite its strong position in trade. This paper will scrutinize how, why and to what extent the EU’s trade power and power through trade have failed in the Russian case. It will also examine whether cooperation with the USA, e.g. in getting Russia to join the WTO and in the sanctions concerning Ukraine, has helped the EU achieve at least some of its goals. Finally, the paper will scrutinize the effectiveness of what may be called the EU’s bureaucratic power in achieving changes in Russia despite the apparent political failure.