Norm rejection : why small states fail to secure special treatment in global trade politics

Abstract

The literature examining small states as norm entrepreneurs focuses predominantly on Scandinavian countries. In contrast, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Small Vulnerable Economies (SVE) in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries are largely excluded from this analysis of norm transmission: there is little work investigating whether these overlapping sub-categories of small states have successfully created norms in areas of interest to them, particularly in multilateral trade. Using the constructivist ‘norm life cycle’ model, this paper proposes four major reasons why SIDS, and SVEs specifically within the SIDS category, outside the Least Developed Country (LDC) group, have so far been unable to establish their eligibility for, and thereby establish adoption of, the norm that they become permanent recipients of special and differential treatment (SDT) and of preferences in global trade politics, despite significant norm entrepreneurship since the 1990s when non-reciprocal free trade lost favour.