By Julia Grübler, Roman Stöllinger und Gabriele Tondl
Environmental protection versus international trade
The adoption of the European Green Deal shifted climate protection and environmental sustainability into the focus of EU policies. Trade policy may be a crucial tool in achieving impact across EU borders. Its primary instruments are bi- and plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), which stretch all over the world.
The premise that FTAs, whose principal objective is to remove trade barriers between participating partners, can contribute to environmental and climate protection, seems surprising at first. After all, lower trade barriers usually mean more international trade and additional emissions related to increased production and transport services. Particularly in developing countries, facilitated access to new markets through FTAs often results in unintended negative environmental effects, e.g. through the establishment of monocultures or accelerated deforestation, which often goes hand in hand with export-oriented agricultural production.
Environmental provisions in trade agreements
In the European Commission's view, EU trade policy can effectively influence climate and environmental policies of partner countries . In recent years, the so-called ‘trade and sustainability chapters’ have found their way into the EU's FTAs as well as into its Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries. Since 2019, the EU also provides for the explicit inclusion of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in its FTAs to mitigate global warming. In addition, the European Commission expects EU trade policy to facilitate trade in environmentally friendly goods and services and thereby to encourage respective investment
- Gains from trade are widely acknowledged, yet pains from trade need to be assessed more thoroughly.
- EU trade agreements are becoming ‘greener’ by including sustainability chapters. However, compared to other provisions, these chapters lack strong enforcement mechanisms.
- Adequate pricing of emissions and environmental damage is necessary to derive meaningful conclusions regarding the net benefits of regional trade agreements.
- Recently, many initiatives have been launched to make EU trade more sustainable. However, the alignment of trade policy with the European Green Deal is far from complete.
Environmental protection versus international trade
The adoption of the European Green Deal shifted climate protection and environmental sustainability into the focus of EU policies. Trade policy may be a crucial tool in achieving impact across EU borders. Its primary instruments are bi- and plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), which stretch all over the world.
The premise that FTAs, whose principal objective is to remove trade barriers between participating partners, can contribute to environmental and climate protection, seems surprising at first. After all, lower trade barriers usually mean more international trade and additional emissions related to increased production and transport services. Particularly in developing countries, facilitated access to new markets through FTAs often results in unintended negative environmental effects, e.g. through the establishment of monocultures or accelerated deforestation, which often goes hand in hand with export-oriented agricultural production.
Environmental provisions in trade agreements
In the European Commission's view, EU trade policy can effectively influence climate and environmental policies of partner countries . In recent years, the so-called ‘trade and sustainability chapters’ have found their way into the EU's FTAs as well as into its Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries. Since 2019, the EU also provides for the explicit inclusion of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in its FTAs to mitigate global warming. In addition, the European Commission expects EU trade policy to facilitate trade in environmentally friendly goods and services and thereby to encourage respective investment