Integration of Environmental Concerns Into the EU Trade Agreements The Real Stakes of the Transatlantic Trade Negotiations?

Abstract

The ‘Trade and Environment’ debate is in the centre of attention of the international trade discourses since the 1980s. The EU is involved into this debate from the very outset, and today, it represents a very strong commitment to the real inclusion of environmental concerns into the legal framework of international trade. That means from the perspective of the ongoing negotiation with the US on transatlantic free trade and investment partnership agreement that a successful compromise can be reached only if the striking divergence regarding the integration of the ‘Trade and Environment’ provisions can be reconciled. The premise of the proposed paper is that essentially, four basic concerns are pivotal elements of an ‘environmentally conscious’ trade agreement. First, the agreement has to set down the most important, environmentally relevant principles and objectives and make clear the relationship between these concerns and the principles of a free trade and liberalization. Second, the agreement should also cover substantive provisions, which enables the parties to introduce measures with the intention to achieve environmental objectives. Third, the essential element is also a dispute resolution system, which can effectively reconcile the divergences of the contracting parties regarding the applicability of the environmental provisions of the agreement. Fourth, the agreement should make clear its relationship to the multilateral environmental agreements as well. The main objective of the paper is to examine the positions of the EU and to weigh up its crucial interests in these questions. Finally, the paper will conclude to the possible policy options of the negotiating parties in order to find a way to a mutually acceptable agreement, which would bridge the trade relations of the two continents.