Liberalizing trade, not exporting rules: the limits to regulatory co-ordination in the EU's ‘new generation’ preferential trade agreements

ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) is considered both an influential global regulator and a trade power. There is thus a common, if rather casual, assumption that the EU exports its regulations through preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Based on a close textual analysis of four early ‘new generation’ PTAs – those with Canada, Central America, Singapore and South Korea – and the Commission's opening position in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, this contribution challenges that assumption. Across a broad spectrum of regulatory issues there has been very limited regulatory co-ordination. Moreover, where it has occurred, it has focused on establishing the equivalence of different rules or on convergence based on international, not European, standards. This contribution thus demonstrates that the EU has not exported its regulations through ‘new generation’ PTAs. Moreover, it contends that the EU has not really tried to. It speculates that the EU has not sought to export aggressively its rules through new generation PTAs because of concern that opposition to regulatory change in its partners would jeopardize agreements that would benefit European firms.

KEY WORDS:

• European Union
• harmonization
• preferential trade agreement
• regulatory co-operation
• regulatory co-ordination
• Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This contribution is part of a wider project that has been funded with support from the European Commission (Jean Monnet Chair 2012-3121). It reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein. I am grateful to Yujia He and Tom Hazzard for their research assistance and to the Sam Nunn School for funding it. Earlier versions of this contribution were presented at the European Union Studies Association Conference, Baltimore, 9–11 May 2013; the International Studies Association Convention, 26–29 Toronto March 2014; the ‘Regulatory Power Europe?’ Jean Monnet Chair Workshop, Georgia Institute of Technology, 18–19 April 2014; and the Workshop on ‘European Regulation: Comparative and International Perspectives,’ University of California, Berkeley, 23–25 April 2014. I am grateful to all of the workshop participants, Tom Doleys and Robert Wolfe and two anonymous referees for their comments. I assert sole ownership of all errors and omissions.

Notes

1 Consolidated CETA Text, 26 September 2014, available at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/152806.htm (accessed 15 December 2014). Agreement establishing an association between Central America, on the one hand, and the European Union and its member states', text available at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=689 (accessed 31 July 2014). Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Korea, of the other part, Official Journal, L127/6, 14 May 2011. Text of the EU–Singapore Free Trade Agreement, 20 September 2013, available at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=961 (accessed 15 December 2014).

2 Available on Inside US Trade's website at http://insidetrade.com/Inside-Trade-General/Public-Content-World-Trade-Online/leaked-document-details-eu-goals-for-ttip-chapters-ahead-of-first-negotiating-session/menu-id-896.html (accessed 18 July 2014).

3 In 2001 the Commission accepted the adequacy of Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

4 Comments by a senior diplomat form an eastern European country, Atlanta, 3 March 2014.

5 According to their WTO trade profiles, of the Central American states the EU was a more important export destination than the US for only Panama (exports to the EU in 2013 were 30 per cent higher than to the US). For the others the US was a much more important export market, ranging from accounting for 70 per cent more exports from Honduras to 11 times more for El Salvador. The trade profiles are accessible via the WTO's website at https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm (accessed 10 April 2015). Concern about increasing regulatory divergence with the US also restricted Canada's willingness to pursue regulatory co-ordination with the EU (comments by a Canadian diplomat, Washington, DC, 26 January 2015).

Additional information

Biographical note

Alasdair Young is professor of international affairs and Jean Monnet Chair in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also chair of the European Union Studies Association (2015–17).