EFTA是否為會員權益平等的國際組織？以EFTA理事會處理農漁牧產品議題為例

Abstract

近年來國際間進行自由貿易談判或是區域經濟整合的活動盛行，於規章上載明保障會員國的會籍平等，並使各會員國有平等的機會參與討論或決策、採取共識決的方式做決策，在這些前提下，是否就能使參與者獲得平等的權益？尤其是農漁牧議題在各個自由貿易協定（Free Trade Agreement, FTA）談判中皆是棘手而敏感的議題，世界貿易組織的杜哈回合談判也是因農業議題造成各國意見僵持不下而延宕多年。 因此本文利用黃偉峯老師至歐洲自由貿易協會（European Free Trade Association, EFTA）總部取得歷年來理事會之會議紀錄文本，抽取其中討論農漁牧產品議題的部分進行分析，探討在EFTA保障會員國會籍平等的條件下，進行議題討論時是否能扭轉以往由強國主導議題解決方向的現象？各國是否能藉由理事會的討論平台，反映出自己的貿易利害關係所在並主導議題結果，在FTA的討論中獲得平等的互惠？ 本文以先前學者對談判架構的分析為基礎，對EFTA理事會會議紀錄文本進行內容分析，並將質化的資料轉成量化資料，並配合綜合國力指標（Kim, 2007）與本文所設計之貿易利害關係指數進行統計分析。結果發現各國的國力及貿易利害關係背景會反應在他們對議題的關注程度上，也能夠透過在理事會平台上的發言間接影響其主導議題程度，最後發現在EFTA理事會的討論平台，仍明顯存在由強國主導議題的現象，那些對農漁牧產品利害關係較高的弱國之偏好無法有效的被納入到EFTA最後的決策中，因此本文認為在協商FTA內容時，仍需注意參與協商者背後的綜合國力不均所帶來的負面效果。

There have been more and more countries engaged in negotiating free trade agreements or regional economic integration in the past few years. Even though they ensured all members have equal right by stated explicitly in convention, guaranteed every member has equal opportunity to participate in discussion, and made decisions base on consensus, members may not acquire equal interest. Agricultural related issues were one of the most critical issues in FTA negotiations. For instance, it came to a deadlock because of agricultural issues in Doha Development round of WTO. In this thesis, we used the summary records of EFTA Council which was acquired by my advisor, Wei-Feng, Huang, form EFTA headquarter in Geneva. Our analysis focused on agricultural related cases. The purpose of this thesis was to explore that if the institution had ensured equal right for each member, the stronger countries may not predominant in negotiation. Therefore, the weak countries could express their opinion of their STAKE on trade or trade preferences. Furthermore, they could have the chance to take important position in making decision and get equal reciprocity on trade. This thesis based on former scholars’ studies on negotiation. And we undertook a content analysis of the summary records of EFTA Council. Trying to transform the qualitative data into quantitative data, combined Structural Network Power Index (Kim, 2007) and STAKE Index to engage a statistical analysis. The empirical result verified that countries will reflect their power and STAKE background through their representative s’ speeches on the Council. Furthermore, their speeches on the Council have indirect effect on countries ability to lead discussions. The essential finding of this thesis is that strong countries can lead most discussions of agricultural cases on EFTA Council. And the result of Council’s decision didn’t satisfy those high STAKE countries’ need. Therefore, when countries are going to engaging FTA negotiation, they should be aware the consequence of power asymmetry between member countries.