The standard way to study global trade politics is a rationalist model of interest group interaction that focuses on the incentives to mobilisation and political activism of import-competing groups versus exporters. We argue that such approaches (while increasingly focusing on the issue of ‘domestic preferences’) still ignore the increasingly important role of language and civil society groups in shaping trade policy. We illustrate this by honing in on the current negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would create the world’s potentially most significant free trade area between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). The fault-lines in these in negotiations have not been drawn between business interests clamouring for protection and those pushing for greater market access abroad, but rather between transatlantic business interests (which are predominantly in favour of the deal) and European (and US) civil society groups which fear a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ in social and environmental standards and the entrenchment of investor rights via investor-state dispute settlement. We ultimately show how in ‘framing’ these negotiations in terms of their impact on regulatory space, civil society groups have exercised considerable influence and put advocates of the TTIP on the back foot.
