Market Freedoms and ‘Democratically Sound’ Re-Embedding of Markets? The example of CETA

Economic globalisation is increasingly perceived to threaten democracy and economic constitutions are increasingly perceived to be in a certain tension with democratic constitutional requirements. This particularly applies to the new comprehensive trade agreements of the EU, such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement’ (CETA) with Canada. This chapter assesses the provisions on regulatory cooperation of CETA with regard to the balance or otherwise they strike between the fostering of market access and the democratically legitimate consideration of other interests, such as environmental protection. To that end, it first introduces the CETA Agreement and its framework on regulatory co-operation, the institutional set-up, competences and substantive principles. Drawing from EU experience, the chapter then elaborates on legitimacy requirements for transnational economic agreements and presents relevant approaches towards achieving this aim, such as representation, horizontal legitimacy and deliberation as well as crucial challenges, before it applies these legitimacy considerations to the CETA Agreement and its provisions on regulatory cooperation and analyses the prospects for a democratically sound re-embedding of the transatlantic market. The chapter concludes that there are serious concerns with regard to both democratic representation and precaution-oriented deliberation in regulatory committees.