Innovations and Implications of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter in the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement

This chapter critically analyses the Trade and Sustainable Development (T&SD) chapter of the EU-Korea FTA. It undertakes a detailed consideration of the substantive and institutional provisions of the T&SD chapter, highlighting differences and similarities in regulatory approaches, vis-à-vis EU practice under other FTAs. The author also draws some comparisons with the environment and labour chapters of the Korea-United States FTA, concluded in 2007. The chapter also identifies and reflects on some critical legal and policy questions that are likely to arise in relation to bilateral cooperation under the T&SD chapter in the years to come. In the final section, the T&SD chapter is assessed in terms of its potential to act as an alternative model for regulating trade-environment and trade-labour linkages in the framework of regional trade agreements, as well as its broader implications for multilateral processes on these issues. It is suggested that the T&SD chapter in the EU-Korea FTA could set the standard for other FTAs subsequently negotiated by the EU. Moreover, institutionalised dialogue under the T&SD chapter may be used by the EU and Korea as a platform to forge common positions in international fora responsible for social, environmental and trade matters, notably the International Labour Organization, multilateral environmental bodies and the World Trade Organization.