Social Standards In Eu And Us Trade Agreements

This book examines the causes and consequences of social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs are the new reality of the global trading system. Pursued by both developed and developing countries, they increasingly incorporate labor and environmental issues to prevent a race to the bottom in social regulation and counter-protectionism. Using principal-agent theory to explore why US PTAs have stricter social standards than those signed by the EU, Postnikov argues that the level of institutional insulation of trade policy executives from interest groups and legislators determines the design of social standards. In the EU, where institutional insulation is high, social standards mirror the normative preferences of the European Commission leading to a softer approach. In the US, where such insulation is low, social standards are driven by interest groups and legislators they control, resulting in a stricter approach. This book shows that both approaches can be effective but work through different causal mechanisms. To test his argument, Postnikov draws on original data collected in Brussels, Washington, Santiago, Bogota, and Seoul. This book will be of interest to all scholars and students working in the fields of international political economy and EU and US trade policy.

Contemporary trade policy is increasingly framed in geo-strategic terms. But how much of that rhetoric is reflected in actual policy choices by the EU or its trading partners? This book provides a first systematic study of the broader international context in which EU trade agreements are conceived, negotiated, and designed. Building on a refined conceptualisation of geo-economics, the book develops a cogent framework that combines insights from scholarship on the design of free trade agreements with ideas from foreign policy analysis. Empirically, the analysis focuses on the relations between the EU and the Asia-Pacific. Following the United States’ pivot to Asia and the EU’s Global Europe strategy, China’s backyard has become the main arena in which global powers’ geo-economic strategies overlap. Building on a series of case-studies, combining the perspectives from the EU and its trading partners, the book shows that the rhetoric of geo-economic competition is yet to catch up with the actual negotiation and design of free trade agreements. This volume will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners who want to gain a holistic understanding of contemporary trade negotiations.

Both US and EU Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) nowadays consistently contain social standards to protect workers and the environment. But while the US pursues a sanction-based approach, the EU solely relies on dialogue and cooperation mechanisms. This book attempts to explain what has led the US and the EU to pursue such diverging approaches. In a structured comparison, this study analyses the US' and the EU's PTA negotiations with Central America, Peru and Colombia, and South Korea. Empirical findings suggest that the constellation of societal preferences was fairly similar in the US and Europe. However, the different institutional frameworks in the US and the EU translated these societal demands into different policy outcomes. In short, the features of the US' domes-tic political processes were much more favourable to the formation of sanction-based social standards than the consensus-oriented style of policymaking in the EU.

The EU has pursued many trade pacts across the world. This is part of its foreign policy: as the third largest economy in the world and lacking hard power, the EU relies on trade agreements to project its interests. These are often complex and far-reaching initiatives that have the potential to shape not only economic but also political and social life in the EU and its trading partners. In Standardizing the World, Francesco Duina and Crina Viju-Miljusevic have gathered a group of leading experts to present an unprecedented assessment of the EU's efforts to standardize a wide array of economic, political, and social aspects of life through its trade agreements across the globe. Drawing on economic sociology and constructivist strands in international political economy, the volume examines what is being standardized, the extent to which the EU has been able to project its worldviews, and what explains the observable patterns of standardization across policy areas and geographies. Ten leading scholars from across the world offer as many chapters on EU agreements with all major trading partners and cover efforts in social and labor rights, the environment, investments, rule of law and anti-corruption, agriculture and food quality, services, public procurement, sustainable development, and more. Their findings paint a picture of a dynamic EU capable of projecting its worldviews across the globe that is nonetheless not always consistent or successful. Standardizing the World provides a wide-ranging and rigorous understanding of standardization in trade agreement as well as the EU's abilities to project its power and worldviews across the globe.

The Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is hailed as the gold standard for trade agreements. It addresses tariffs on traded goods, favoured status for EU and Canadian exporters, trade in services, and technical barriers to trade, while also seeking coordination between government agencies to promote regulatory cooperation, harmonization, and mutual recognition of standards. As the world retreats towards populism and protectionism, CETA Implementation and Implications provides a vital examination of this contemporary economic collaboration between developed states, which serves as a model for other progressive regional trade agreements. This book offers the first in-depth, comprehensive assessment of CETA, covering many of its most important elements and exploring its obstacles, accomplishments, and early effects. Based on the European Commission-funded Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Project on CETA Implementation and Implications, which linked scholars and stakeholders across Europe and North America to analyze and evaluate the implementation and impacts of the agreement, this book covers regulation, procurement, the environment, the innovative investment disputes system, labour mobility and labour relations, bilateral governance instruments, and the implications for EU trade policy of CETA’s contested ratification. Uniquely interdisciplinary and featuring contributors from around the world, CETA Implementation and Implications provides a nuanced and balanced assessment of this landmark trade agreement and its effects on regional and global trade in turbulent times.

This book unveils the potential of utilizing EU Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) as an instrument of promoting the rule of law to third states. In doing so, the book combines development economics, foreign policy and legal perspectives at three levels of analysis of four sectors to introduce the concept of "EU value-promoting RTAs". The book demonstrates that the EU RTAs bear considerable potential to be strategized as instruments of promoting the rule of law in third states, requiring, however, overcoming strict divides between EU political and economic cooperation, and values and acquis conditionality in its relations with third countries. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, European Union Law, EU external action/foreign policy, EU trade agreements and Development Studies, as well as to NGOs and think tanks that work on European affairs.

What purpose does the EU serve? Why and how was it set up? How does it work? What has it already achieved for its citizens, and what new challenges does it face today? In a globalised world, can the EU compete successfully with other major economies while maintaining its social standards? How can immigration be managed? What will Europe’s role be on the world stage in the years ahead? Where will the EU’s boundaries be drawn? And what future is there for the euro? These are just some of the questions explored by EU expert Pascal Fontaine in this 2017 edition of his popular booklet Europe in 12 lessons. Pascal Fontaine is a former assistant to Jean Monnet and former professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques, Paris.

This book explores how the European Union designs its trade policy to face the most recent challenges and to influence global policy issues. It provides with an interdisciplinary perspective, by combining legal, political, and economic approaches. It studies a broad set of trade instruments that are used by the EU in its trade policy, such as: trade agreements, multilateral initiatives, unilateral trade policies, as well as, internal market tools. Therefore, the contributions to this volume present the EU’s Trade Policy through different lenses providing a complex view of it.