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Sustainable Development in TTIP: A Highest Common Denominator Compromise?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ferdi De Ville ,
Jan Orbie  and
Lore Van den Putte
Ferdi De Ville
Affiliation:
Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University
Jan Orbie
Affiliation:
Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University
Lore Van den Putte
Affiliation:
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University
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Extract

The impact of TTIPleaks on the negotiations of and debate about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been more limited than its name and announcement would lead us to expect. This is, first, because the leaked ‘consolidated documents’ only show the European Union's (EU) and United States’ (US) positions on a number of negotiating areas but does not unveil concessions made by either side in the pursuit of a compromise. Therefore, it contains little surprising information for observers of the negotiations. But a second reason for the lack of uproar is that for only about half of the expected chapters in TTIP a text has been leaked, either because there is no consolidated text yet for the other issues in the negotiations or because Greenpreace did not get hold of it. One of the chapters lacking in the TTIPleaks is on ‘Trade and Sustainable Development’. This is an interesting issue area because the advocates often argue that this chapter will help ensure that TTIP upholds and strengthens social and environmental standards.

Type
Symposium on TTIP Leaks
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 290 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016

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References

1 Cecilia Malmström, “TTIP – what's in it for labour, environment and sustainable development”, 6 November 2015, available on the Internet at: <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/malmstrom/blog/ttip-whats-it-labour-environment-and-sustainable-development_en> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

2 We do this because of word constraints, because the literatures on labour and environmental provisions in trade agreements have been quite separated, because most scholarship on trade and sustainable development has focused on labour rights, and because the US has the tradition to deal with labour and environmental provisions separately (while the EU integrates them in a sustainable development chapter). This difference in structuring labour and environmental provisions could be accommodated by including chapters in TTIP on trade and labour, trade and environment and trade and sustainable development, as in the EUCanada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

3 Van den Putte, Lore and Orbie, Jan, “EU bilateral trade agreements and the surprising rise of labour provisions”, 31 International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (2015), pp. 263 et sqq.Google Scholar

4 International Institute for Labour Studies, “Social Dimensions of Free Trade Agreements”, 6 November 2013, available on the Internet at: <http://www.ilo.org/global/research/publications/WCMS_228965/lang--en/index.htm> (last accessed on 18 May 2016).

5 Office of the United States Trade Representative, “Bipartisan Agreement on Trade Policy”, May 2007, available on the Internet at: <https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/factsheets/2007/asset_upload_file127_11319.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

6 The interesting question how these provisions may affect the interpretation of other chapters of TTIP, such as on investment (and investment protection in particular), is beyond the scope of this article. Similarly, we do not discuss provisions on sustainable development in other chapters than the one dedicated to this topic specifically.

7 Office of the United States Trade Representative, “Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights”, April 7 2011, available on the Internet at: <https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/agreements/morocco/pdfs/Colombian%20Action%20Plan%20Related%20to%20Labor%20Rights.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

8 Vogt, Jeffrey, “The Evolution of Labor Rights and Trade—A Transatlantic Comparison and Lessons for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership”, 18 Journal of International Economic Law (2015) pp. 827 et sqq.Google Scholar

9 The possibility for sanctions remains largely hypothetical for now as only one public submission on labour violations in Guatemala has reached the stage of dispute settlement. At the time of writing, the outcome is still uncertain.

10 European Commission, “EU Textual Proposal: Trade and Sustainable Development”, 6 November 2015, available on the Internet at: <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/november/tradoc_153923.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

11 US Congress, “Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015”, 11 May 2015, available on the Internet at: <https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s995/BILLS-114s995rs.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

12 European Parliament resolution of 8 July 2015 containing the European Parliament's recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP, 2014/2228(INI).

13 ETUC, “Position on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership”, 25 April 2013, available on the Internet at: <https://www.etuc.org/documents/etuc-position-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership#.VzmPI0t2mSA> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

14 See United States Council for International Business, “Issue Analysis: U.S. Ratification of ILO Core Labor Standards”, April 2007, available on the Internet at: <https://www.uscib.org/docs/US_Ratification_of_ILO_Core_Conventions.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).

15 European Commission, “The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – State of Play”, 27 April 2016, p. 6, available on the Internet at: <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2016/april/tradoc_154477.pdf> (last accessed on 16 May 2016).