Negotiating sustainable trade: explaining the difference in social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements

Leeg, Tobias

doi:10.1080/13569775.2017.1422093

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Yet, provisions concerning civil society monitoring in the agreement are less far-reaching than in other agreements (Orbie et al, 2017). In contrast to the EU-CARIFORUM agreement, the EU-AC agreement does not establish a civil society forum (Leeg, 2018), but it invites parties to 'consult domestic labor and environment or sustainable development committees or groups, or create such committees or groups when they do not exist. '…”

Section: Eu-ac Agreementmentioning

confidence: 97%

Promoting sustainable development through trade? EU trade agreements and global value chains

Poletti

Sicurelli

Yildirim

2020

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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Sustainable development provisions have become an integral part of the European Union's (EU's) ‘new generation’ trade agreements. Yet, a growing number of empirical works show that their design varies significantly, even in the trade agreements signed with countries at similar (low) levels of development. We contend that this variation can be accounted for by discussing how the growing integration of the EU economy with specific developing countries across global value chains (GVCs) affects the domestic politics of regulatory export in the EU. European firms that operate within GVCs rely on imports of inputs produced in low-labor cost countries. These firms tend to oppose the export of those regulatory burdens that generate an increase in their imports' variable costs. The political mobilization of these actors weakens domestic coalitions supporting regulatory export strategies, which explains why the EU adopts a more lenient approach over the inclusion of sustainable development provisions in Preferential Trade Agreement negotiations with some developing countries.

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Section: Eu-ac Agreementmentioning

confidence: 97%

Promoting sustainable development through trade? EU trade agreements and global value chains

Poletti

Sicurelli

Yildirim

2020

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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“…Most American provisions aim to enforce a party’s existing domestic labour standards and have expanded since 2007 to also reference the 1998 Declaration that obligates parties to adhere to the ILO’s four core standards. These rules are subject to dispute settlement and offenses can be penalized financially or by withholding trade privileges (International Labour Office, 2013; Leeg, 2018). Unlike the EU’s approach, it has been argued that the USA’s ability to enforce compliance through penalties has been necessary to transform the labour regimes of partner countries (Hafner-Burton, 2019; Kim, 2012).…”

Section: Labour Chapters In Trade Agreementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a novel index to evaluate labour chapters in trade agreements: Canada’s ambition–enforceability compromise

Williams

Lilly

2021

JITLP

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Purpose Lack of progress advancing labour provisions in multilateral trade instruments has led some countries to develop their own labour chapters in bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements. This study aims to track the evolution of 25 years of labour chapters in Canadian trade agreements. Design/methodology/approach Modelled on Hoekman (1995), the authors present a novel index using the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) core labour standards to compare and evaluate ambition and enforcement in Canada’s labour chapters. Findings The quality of Canada’s labour chapters has steadily improved from 1994 to 2020, with scores rising from 46 to 91 out of 100. In addition, Canada has used its negotiating leverage to encourage partners with weak labour regimes to make improvements. Yet, the highest quality chapters were achieved with trade partners similar to Canada, and those chapters have not pushed either party to improve their own domestic labour regimes. The authors discuss the limits of the ILO standards for addressing contemporary debates about labour and trade. Originality/value The authors’ assessment provides the first empirical evidence to demonstrate that Canada’s labour chapters have evolved over time, and that the origins of this evolution predate the Liberal government’s progressive trade agenda by several decades. The authors also suggest that Canada’s “middle road” compromise on ambition versus enforceability may increase the relevance of the index for research on other middle powers and potentially countries in the global south.

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“…The Commission's rationale is that free trade and sustainable development can be reconciled (Young and The initial intentions for the creation of DAGs were not to empower civil society, but rather to merely promote learning at the intergovernmental and civil society level. This would not involve sanctions or other punitive measures (Postnikov and Bastiaens 2014;Leeg 2018; Pr evost and Alexovi cov a 2019). According to Harrison et al (2019, 267), both EU and partner country officials 'did not see the TSD chapters as their primary responsibility', positioning the civil society mechanisms as primary (and autonomous) drivers of sustainability instead.…”

Section: The Dags As a Consultative Forummentioning

confidence: 99%

Forging their path in the Brussels bubble? Civil society resistance within the domestic advisory groups created under the EU trade agreements

Potjomkina

Orbie

Shahin

2020

Cambridge Review of International Affairs

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Negotiating sustainable trade: explaining the difference in social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements

Cited by 7 publications

References 51 publications

Promoting sustainable development through trade? EU trade agreements and global value chains

Promoting sustainable development through trade? EU trade agreements and global value chains

Developing a novel index to evaluate labour chapters in trade agreements: Canada’s ambition–enforceability compromise

Forging their path in the Brussels bubble? Civil society resistance within the domestic advisory groups created under the EU trade agreements

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