7 - Enforcement of the FTA TSD Chapters

Summary

Chapter 7 focuses on the enforcement of the FTA Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters and EU’s plan to strengthen it. It introduces the reader to the EU’s former cooperative approach and the long-lasting debate on the use of sanctions. It follows with an analysis of the newly found robustness of EU’s approach towards TSD enforcement, by assessing the recent EU–Korea FTA labour dispute and presenting the EU’s new TSD enforcement approach, which extends the coverage of general dispute settlement compliance stage to TSD chapters and adds the possibility to impose sanctions in case of certain TSD breaches. It continues with an analysis of the available tools in case of non-compliance even in case of an express FTA legal basis for sanctions. In particular, it explores whether the EU could make use of international customary rules enshrined in the ILC Draft Articles on State Responsibility, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, or the ’Essential Elements’ Clauses from EU FTAs and Framework Agreements. Finally, the chapter presents other pertinent political considerations and evaluates the latest developments in strengthening the enforcement of EU’s FTA TSD chapters.