Standardization among the Like-Minded

Abstract

The EU-Korea trade agreement, which has been applied since 2011, has ushered in a new era of deep trade integration. Eight years later, the EU-Japan agreement was declared the new “gold standard” of EU trade relations. Korea and Japan are important trading partners for the EU. However, their significance goes beyond the bilateral relationship. Over the past few years, they have been integrated into a network of cross-regional agreements that may facilitate the spread of their definitional and normative principles. These include ASEAN + 3 and the two remaining mega-regional agreements, CPTPP and RCEP. Simultaneously, they have become very active in plurilateral and multilateral negotiations in sparsely regulated economic sectors, such as the digital economy and advancing technologies. The EU free trade agreements with these “like-minded” partners in East Asia show how existing international norms, standards, and institutions are being strengthened and how they aim to collaboratively create future standards for international trade.