Power in international trade negotiations

... For the last twenty years, countries across the globe have negotiated a large number of preferential trade agreements. In parallel, trade negotiations have taken place in the framework of the World Trade Organization. These negotiations not only deal with tariffs, but also cover investments, competition policy, labour standards and much more. With much at stake, the extent to which different countries are able to achieve their preferred outcomes in these negotiations is of broad interest. In this project, I address this topic by asking: what makes some countries have more bargaining power than others in these negotiations? In other words, what explains variation in bargaining power in trade negotiations?