EU Trade Policy

This book unveils the potential of utilizing EU Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) as an instrument of promoting the rule of law to third states. In doing so, the book combines development economics, foreign policy and legal perspectives at three levels of analysis of four sectors to introduce the concept of EU value-promoting RTAs. The book demonstrates that the EU RTAs bear considerable potential to be strategized as instruments of promoting the rule of law in third states, requiring, however, overcoming strict divides between EU political and economic cooperation, and values and acquis conditionality in its relations with third countries. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, European Union Law, EU external action/foreign policy, EU trade agreements and Development Studies, as well as to NGOs and think tanks that work on European affairs.

This open access book offers a new account on the legal conflict between privacy and trade in the digital sphere. It develops a fundamental rights theory with a new right to continuous protection of personal data and explores the room for the application of this new right in trade law. Replicable legal analysis and practical solutions show the way to deal with cross-border data flows without violating fundamental rights and trade law principles. The interplay of privacy and trade became a topic of worldwide attention in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations concerning US mass surveillance. Based on claims brought forward by the activist Maximilian Schrems, the ECJ passed down two high-profile rulings restricting EU-US data flows. Personal data is relevant for a wide range of services that are supplied across borders and restrictions on data flows therefore have an impact on the trade with such services. After the two rulings by the ECJ, it is less clear then ever how privacy protection and trade can be brought together on an international scale. Although it was widely understood that the legal dispute over EU-US data flows concerns the broad application of EU data protection law, it has never been fully explored just how far the EU’s requirements for the protection of digital rights go and what this means beyond EU-US data flows. This book shows how the international effects of EU data protection law are rooted in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and that the architecture of EU law demands that the Charter as primary EU law takes precedence over international law. The book sets out to solve the problem of how the EU legal data transfer regime must be designed to implement the EU’s extraterritorial fundamental rights requirements without violating the principles of the WTO’s law on services. It also addresses current developments in international trade law – the conclusion of comprehensive trade agreements – and offers suggestion for the design of data flow clauses that accommodate privacy and trade.

Seit Grundung der Europaischen Union, insbesondere seit dem Inkrafttreten des Vertrags von Lissabon wird die Bedeutung des Volkerrechts im europaischen Primarrecht hervorgehoben. Das Bekenntnis der EU "zur strikten Einhaltung und Weiterentwicklung des Volkerrechts" wird allerdings durch den Abschluss von Assoziierungs- und Handelsabkommen oder durch die Offnung des europaischen Binnenmarktes fur aus Gebieten mit ungeklarter territorialer Zuordnung zunehmend in Frage gestellt worden. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Grenzen der Handlungsfreiheit im Rahmen der gemeinsamen europaischen Handelspolitik im Zusammenhang mit umstrittenen Gebieten zu definieren und europaische Massnahmen am Massstab des Volker- und Europarechts zu bewerten.

This book examines the interactions between trade policy and foreign and security policy in EU external action as a nexus of practices. Drawing on the rich empirical material of over 50 in-depth interviews with EU officials, members of the European Parliament and member state diplomats, the book reconstructs and analyses the distinctive institutional cultures of the Directorate-General for Trade and the European External Action Service, their policy practices and the effect on EU external action. It appeals to scholars of political science and international relations.

Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures are the most important elements of the European Union's trade defence instruments. Since the beginning of the European integration process, they have been used to combat trade practices which are considered "unfair" and their distortive effects on competition in the internal market. However, while the imposition of trade defence measures aims to level the playing field between EU producers and their foreign competitors, it also produces negative effects on competition itself.Based on the role attributed to competition and trade defence policy respectively throughout the European integration process, this book argues that the trading bloc's trade defence instruments should not be designed or applied with the objective of granting maximum protection to EU producers, but that their use should be limited to what is necessary to ensure fairness in competition between EU producers and exporting producers.However, an analysis of the changes made to the European Union's Basic Anti-Dumping Regulation and the Basic Anti-Subsidy Regulation by the Trade Defence Modernisation Package reveals that several aspects of the European Union's modernised trade defence instruments do not meet this requirement. Rather than being limited to offsetting the unfair competitive advantages of producers practicing dumping or benefiting from subsidies, the reformed provisions go beyond this, distorting competition in favour of the EU industry instead. Furthermore, the book critically assesses the reformed rules relating to the integration of social and environmental aspects in the imposition of anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures as well as the modernised basic regulations' compatibility with WTO law.

Contemporary trade policy is increasingly framed in geo-strategic terms. But how much of that rhetoric is reflected in actual policy choices by the EU or its trading partners? This book provides a first systematic study of the broader international context in which EU trade agreements are conceived, negotiated, and designed. Building on a refined conceptualisation of geo-economics, the book develops a cogent framework that combines insights from scholarship on the design of free trade agreements with ideas from foreign policy analysis. Empirically, the analysis focuses on the relations between the EU and the Asia-Pacific. Following the United States' pivot to Asia and the EU's Global Europe strategy, China's backyard has become the main arena in which global powers' geo-economic strategies overlap. Building on a series of case-studies, combining the perspectives from the EU and its trading partners, the book shows that the rhetoric of geo-economic competition is yet to catch up with the actual negotiation and design of free trade agreements. This volume will be of great interest to scholars, students and practitioners who want to gain a holistic understanding of contemporary trade negotiations.

Focusing on the experiences of Thailand and Australia, this book examines the impact of trade-restrictive measures as related to the EU's regulations to prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. It is widely accepted that IUU fishing is harmful, and should be stopped, but there are different approaches to tackling it. Acknowledging this, this book argues that major efforts to fight IUU fishing require careful analyses if the goal is to achieve optimal results and avoid unintended consequences. The book draws on the recent experiences of Thailand and Australia to offer an empirical examination of one increasingly prominent solution, trade-restrictive measures. With Thailand representing direct, active intervention by the EU and Australia a more indirect dispersion of policy narratives and discourses, the book provides a rounded view on how likely it is that different countries in different situations will adapt to the changing policy norms regarding IUU fishing. Understanding the reactions of countries who might be targeted, or otherwise be influenced by the policy, generates new knowledge that helps inform a more effective and scalable implementation of the policy on the part of the EU and a better governance preparedness on the part of non-EU fishing nations. In broader terms, this book exposes a key moment of change in the compatibility between environmental regulations and international trade. The EU IUU policy is a prime example of a policy that uses the mechanisms of international trade to account for environmental and conservation objectives. By way of the unilateral and trade-restrictive stance against IUU fishing, the EU has positioned itself as a major market and normative power, driving its sustainability norms outwards. This book sheds light on the efficacy of this policy setup based on the analysis of country perspectives, which is a key factor influencing its potential spread. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international fisheries politics, marine conservation, environmental policy and international trade, and will also be of interest to policymakers working in these areas.

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed chapters reflecting on the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (AEUFTA). Since 18 June 2018, ten rounds of negotiations for a AEUFTA have been held in a constructive atmosphere, showing a shared commitment to move forward with this ambitious and comprehensive agreement. After a lengthy and arduous process interrupted by the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the United States' hesitations regarding the EU's global strategy and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the negotiations between Australia and the European Union finally appear to be nearing completion. In challenging times, both parties share a commitment to a positive trade agenda, and to the idea that good trade agreements benefit both sides by boosting jobs, growth and investment. This book explores the challenges, achievements and missed opportunities in the AEUFTA negotiation process, and examines current legal and political relations between the EU, its Member States and Australia. Furthermore, it examines in detail a wide and diverse range of negotiated areas, including digital trade, services, intellectual property rules, trade remedies and investment screening, as well as dispute settlement mechanisms. Lastly, it sheds light on the likely nature of future commercial relations between Australia and the EU. Written by a team of respected authors from leading institutions in both Australia and Europe, the book provides a valuable, interdisciplinary analysis of the AEUFTA.

This book looks at the history of the EU's trade negotiations with China from 1975 to 2019 from a distinctive perspective - the EU as a linkage power. The author explains how the EU through linkage strategies speaks with one voice, overcomes its weakness in military capabilities and translates its non-military capabilities into advantages and influences in some specific policy areas. The book systematically traces the European negotiators' tactics in managing the EU's trade relations with China. It's the first time that the history of EU-China trade negotiations is presented to the public by a seasoned trade negotiator. The author, combining the identities of a negotiator and a scholar, gives a panoramic view of EU-China trade relations from 1975, when the European Economic Community established diplomatic relations with China, to 2019 when the Juncker Commission leaves office. This book will appeal to policymakers, think-tankers, professors and students, as well as anyone who is interested in trade policies and negotiations in the EU and China. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis .com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The European Union and Human Rights: Analysis, Cases, and Materials maps and critiques the EU's commitment to human rights in both internal and external affairs. The book covers the evolution as well as the current state of the EU's engagement with human rights, focusing, on the internal side, on the role of the EU law in the multi-faceted system of human rights protection and, on the external side, on the EU's efforts to bind its foreign policy to promoting himan rights. This book combines analysis of key developments with a wide range of sources, including extracts from legislation, case law, policy documents, and research of other scholars. The inclusion of both primary and secondary materials is intended to guide readers to acquire a deep understanding of EU human rights law and policy. This title devotes significant attention to explicating the fundamental concepts and systemic features of the EU's human rights protection and promotion. In addition, chapters devoted to individual topics provide more depth on a range of policy areas in both the internal and external dimension of EU affairs. Topics covered by these individual chapters include non-discrimination and competition law, migration, trade policy, and development cooperation.

This book explores relations between states in the Africa-European Union in view of the African Continental Free Trade Area, both at a regional level and as a series of informal processes of socioeconomic and political interactions between state and non-state actors. The book reconsiders the ways in which actors in the Africa-European Union relationship function, and what that means for regionalism, regionalisation and regional integration. In addition to formalised state-to-state and inter-regional interactions, the book examines the impact of socio-economic and political interactions with non-state actors, including those who engage with regional integration through formal and informal processes such as civil society activists, "African migration evangelists", human smugglers and human traffickers. The book thus demonstrates that regional and inter-regional engagements include issues that extend beyond the usual discussions of trade. The book is authored from an African perspective and will be of interest to academics who specialise in International Relations, Political Economy, Political Sociology and African Studies. Policy makers and various actors in civil society and think tanks who have an academic inclination and deal with trade, migration and regionalism in Africa and Africa's relations with Europe will also find the book beneficial.