EU Trade and Non‐trade Objectives: New Survey Evidence on Policy Design and Effectiveness

Abstract

EU trade policy increasingly focuses on the achievement of non-trade policy objectives (NTPOs) such as the promotion of human rights or environmental protection, motivating research on the political economy determinants and effectiveness of linking trade policy and NTPOs. This research reports selected findings from a new expert survey of stakeholder perceptions of trade-NTPO linkages. These suggest that the views of EU institutions align with those of civil society organizations more than with business, but also reveal significant differences in the perceived effectiveness of trade-NTPO linkage strategies. Many stakeholder groups believe that policy instruments other than trade agreements are more effective tools to pursue NTPOs. These findings suggest that further research on EU trade policy and non-trade issues should consider the broader range of external policy tools available to the EU in pursuit of NTPOs and the determinants of differences in preferences for alternative policy instruments.

Pursuing Environmental and Social Objectives through Trade Agreements

“…This finding is consistent with the low efficacy of NTPs in delivering systematic, positive changes, and is also consistent with the idea that using trade policy to "enforce" non-trade related policy objectives requires other forms of support, spanning from technical to financial schemes (Yildirim et al, 2021).…”

Joint Institutional Frameworks in EU Bilateral Agreements: Joint Bodies, Rules and Principles, and Special Procedures

“…Most are more than simply preferential trade agreements and often include economic and sectoral cooperation, integration and alignment. The scope increasingly extends into non‐trade issues (Milewicz et al ., 2016), reflecting the rise of non‐trade policy objectives in EU trade policy (Yildirim et al ., 2021). Such objectives often cover security, human rights, the environment, development and sustainability (Hahn and Van der Loo, 2020, pp.…”

Trade and Sustainable Development: Non-Economic Objectives in the Theory of Economic Policy

“…improving the prospects for achieving NEOs in different contexts (low vs. middle income country partners; authoritarian vs. democracies; small vs. large traders). Instruments that can be used to generate information on priorities accorded to different NEOs, potential instruments to pursue them and their relative costs include deliberative polling (Hoekman and Rojas-Romagosa, 2022), value chain platforms in partner countries (Findlay and Hoekman, 2020), and targeted surveys (Fiorini et al 2019;Yildirim et al 2021). Doing so would allow the standard CGE models used in SIAs to better inform policymakers and civil society on how trade policy may impact on NEOs and assist in the prioritization of which NEOs to target in a specific context and period.…”