27 October 2022
Camille Vallier is a Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and Research Fellow in Trade and Sustainable Law at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex. This blog was originally published by Trade 4 Sustainable Development.
After having defended a sustainable development approach to trade based on cooperation and dialogue for the past decade, the European Union (EU) announced in June 2022 its intention to tighten its approach. The recent Communication “The power of trade partnership: together for green and just economic growth” presents the EU’s new strategy, which, among other measures, plans to extend the general state to state dispute settlement mechanism to the TSD chapter and to include the possibility of trade sanctions for non-compliance with certain provisions of the TSD chapter. These new measures have been adopted in response to a long-lasting observation that the current system does not enable a full and satisfying implementation and enforcement of sustainability provisions. (more…)
Cosmo Rana-Iozzi October 27th, 2022
Posted In: UK- EU
Tags: agri-food trade, Climate policy, Environment, ethical trade, European Union, Free Trade Agreement, labour standards, social, Sustainability, Sustainability Impact Assessments, trade, Trade agreements, trade dispute, trade negotiations, trade policy
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15 February 2018
Rob Amos, Research Fellow in Law, Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, University of Sussex. Rob is conducting a project on Sustainable Trade Post-Brexit in collaboration with the UK Trade Policy Observatory.
As the UK begins to devise its independent trade policy, it is essential that any new trade agreements it negotiates are subject to Parliamentary, as well as public, oversight and scrutiny. To facilitate such oversight, the UK should undertake Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) for these agreements. If the UK is serious about sustainable development, it must ensure that any future trade agreements do not negatively impact the environment and communities either at home or abroad. (more…)
Charlotte Humma February 15th, 2018
Posted In: UK - Non EU, UK- EU
Tags: Accountabilty, economic, Environment, European Commission, Free Trade Agreement, human rights, SIA, social, Sustainability
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16 May 2017
Compiled by Fellows of UKTPO
Brexit will leave many areas of UK policy open to change. International trade policy is among the most important of these for UK prosperity and also among the most immediate because the status quo cannot simply be extended. This is the first in a series of blogs reporting what the major political parties say about trade policy in their 2017 manifestos, as they become available.
The UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) has set out a series of issues that it believes should be considered in any election manifesto that might form the basis of the UK’s future trade policy. The table below checks whether or not the Labour Party Manifesto mentions these important elements explicitly or implicitly. Following that we offer a brief commentary on the treatment of trade policy in the manifesto.
Charlotte Humma May 16th, 2017
Posted In: UK - Non EU, UK- EU
Tags: Brexit, Environment, FTA, Labour, Manifesto, MRAs, social, Tarriff-free trade, Trade agreements, Transitional period, WTO
