European Union Trade Research Articles

European Union trade in 2022: external balance deficit and growth of internal interactions

EU foreign trade in 2022 has been developing under relentless inflation, the burden of energy prices and food products. In 10 months of 2022, the growing import dependence of the EU on the USA and China was registered. Russia is holding its ground due to a sharp rise of its exports’ value. Because of agricultural imports, foreign trade cooperation of the EU with Ukraine strengthens. The economies of the EU member states are still to overcome the consequences of the pandemic. At the same time, the EU trade deficit has significantly increased since the end of 2021. In the medium term, the European Single market will remain under the mounting pressure from more profitable economic locations.

EU, Trading and human rights: consistent framework?

The relationship between European Union and International Human Rights Law has not always been close. The global projection of the EU, specially, its interest in becoming a leader in international trade, is facing its negative impact in some territories, specially those affected by human rights violation or negation of fundamental rules of International Law, such as ius cogens self-determination of people. This paper will examine to what extend the practice of the European Union trading with occupying and administrative powers in some territories could jeopardise its compliance with its own values and principles.

Why Do some Labour Alliances Succeed in Politicizing Europe across Borders? A Comparison of the Right2Water and Fair Transport European Citizens' Initiatives.

Under what conditions can organized labour successfully politicize the European integration process across borders? To answer this question, we compare the European Citizens' Initiatives (ECIs) of two European trade union federations: EPSU's successful Right2Water ECI and ETF's unsuccessful Fair Transport ECI. Our comparison reveals that actor‐centred factors matter – namely, unions' ability to create broad coalitions. Successful transnational labour campaigns, however, also depend on structural conditions, namely, the prevailing mode of EU integration pressures faced by unions at a given time. Whereas the Right2Water ECI pre‐emptively countered commodification attempts by the European Commission in water services, the Fair Transport ECI attempted to ensure fair working conditions after most of the transport sector had been liberalized. Vertical EU integration attempts that commodify public services are thus more likely to generate successful transnational counter‐movements than the horizontal integration pressures on wages and working conditions that followed earlier successful EU liberalization drives.

FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement implementation in Ghana: insights from a SWOT analysis

The European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) is an important international forest governance initiative, yet various implementation challenges remain. The FLEGT VPA implementation challenges are well-documented in the scientific literature, where various methodologies and research approaches have been used. As the empirical case indicated various contradicting and overlapping claims, where different respondents framed the same situations as strengths as well as weaknesses, and/or as threats as well as opportunities, we used the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) approach to assess the associated governance changes in FLEGT VPA implementation in Ghana. This paper offers new insights derived from participant observation of the second independent technical evaluation of the Ghana Timber Legality Assurance System (GhTLAS) conducted in July 2019, and from semi-structured interviews with key informants and a document review. What are considered the greatest perceived strengths – namely multi-stakeholder engagement, clarification of regulatory frameworks, and access to information – are brought into question once the identified weaknesses and threats are explored in more detail. The identified weaknesses include the top-down nature of the multi-stakeholder process, fatigue related to additional legality principles, and bureaucracy of the GhTLAS, which negatively affect VPA implementation activities and processes in Ghana.

A Partnership of Equals? ‘Deeper’ Economic Integration Between the EU and Northern Africa

Strengthening ties with Africa has become a top priority for the current geopolitical European Commission. The focus on Africa is not new: Since 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has gradually developed a framework for political dialogue and reforms in Northern African countries, which form part of the Southern Neighbourhood. The conclusion of association agreements and free trade agreements (FTAs) at the end of the previous century brought these countries closer to the European Union (EU) in commercial terms. In February 2021, the EU launched a renewed agenda for the South Mediterranean with a view to integrating these economies further to the EU edifice. Against this backdrop, this Article discusses how economic integration manifests itself in the region. It further pinpoints the economic fundamentals and political realities that will shape further economic integration between the EU and Northern Africa. A central element of EU’s renewed strategy in the region is the conclusion of deep and comprehensive free trade agreements (DCFTAs) with Northern African countries. It is argued that the conclusion of such agreements will constitute a litmus test for EU’s new assertive approach in trade matters in line with the newly adopted concept of open strategic autonomy. European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), Southern Neighbourhood, Northern Africa, EU trade policy, EU foreign policy, strategic autonomy, deep and comprehensive free trade agreements (DCFTAs), South Mediterranean, economic integration

When politicization meets ideology: the European Parliament and free trade agreements

AbstractSince the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament (EP) has considerably increased its competencies in European Union (EU) trade policy. At the same time, a ‘new generation’ of free trade agreements (FTAs), including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States, Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, and the agreement with Japan, have been negotiated by the European Commission. Although existing literature has tackled the process of the EP's institutional self-empowerment in this policy area, there is no systematic research investigating the lines of conflict within the EP over FTAs. Through a newly collected dataset of all EP plenary debates between 2009 and 2019 on six relevant FTAs, we extract EP Members’ (MEPs) preferences by means of a manual textual analysis. We then test the explanatory power of the two traditional lines of cleavages within the EP over MEPs stated preferences: position on the left-right axis and support for EU integration. We find that both these dimensions fundamentally shape the conflict in the EP over FTAs. The impact of these two ideological cleavages is magnified in the context of politicized FTAs, namely the TTIP and CETA. Through these findings, the paper significantly contributes to the research on competition in the EP and, more broadly, to the understanding of EU trade policy and its emerging politicization dynamics.

Who Teams Up with the European Parliament? Examining Multilevel Party Cooperation in the European Union

AbstractAs in nearly all European Union (EU) policy areas, scholars have turned to analysing the role of national parliaments, in addition to that of the European Parliament (EP), in trade politics. Yet, there is limited understanding of how the parliamentarians at the two levels interact. This article fills the gap by conceptualizing these interactions as a continuum ranging between cooperation, coexistence and competition. We use this continuum to explore multilevel party interactions in EU trade talks and show how cooperation compels politicization – national parliamentarians mainly interact with their European colleagues in salient matters. However, we argue that the impact of politicization on multilevel relations between parliamentarians in the EP and national parliaments is conditioned by party-level factors. Hence, we account for how and why politicization triggers multilevel party cooperation across parliaments in the EU through ideological orientation, government position and policy preferences and show how this takes place in the case of trade.

India–European Union Trade Integration: An Analysis of Current and Future Trajectories

In a dynamic global environment of increased economic interdependence, nations are more than ever seeking to remove barriers to trade, despite growing trends of protectionism. In this context, India and the EU-27 have initiated talks for the establishment of a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in an attempt to bring their economies together. However, after 16 rounds of negotiations, the failure to conclude this agreement has raised questions regarding the benefits of the agreement to India. This study attempts to examine the current trade scenario and the effects of the proposed regional trade agreement by estimating a structural gravity model. This study employs the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator for analysing the trade-creation and trade-diversion effects of the BTIA to overcome the shortcomings of ordinary least square (OLS) estimators. For the empirical analysis, the merchandise export data from the Gravity database has been taken for a period of 19 years from 2001 to 2019. The results indicate that the BTIA could lead to trade creation and trade diversion, highlighting the need for a re-evaluation of India’s trade policy. JEL Classification: F10, F13, F14, F15, O24

A scoping review of the EU's impact on access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries

The European Union (EU) has a potential major influence on patients' global access to medicines. Historically, this influence most notably came through the EU's trade and aid agendas that intentionally targeted foreign markets. Now, the EU's own internal pharmaceutical policy appears to indirectly shape global access to medicines (ex. EU's large-scale Covid-19 vaccine procurement and export bans). To understand the ways the EU's internal and external policies impact on global access to medicines, this Scoping Review synthesises evidence of the EU's global regulatory influence and its impacts on access to medicines in non-EU low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). By searching 8 databases and grey literature, documents published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Russian between 1995-2021 that addressed an EU law, regulation, or policy in relation to access to medicines in LMICs were included. This review identifies three mechanisms through which EU action impacts on medicines in LMICs. One, the EU's external, treaty-based agreements with LMICs can affect their pharmaceutical trade, sales, and use. Two, EU's internal market regulation, standards, and methods are used as models or sources of inspiration for pharmaceutical governance in LMICs. Three, ‘soft' forms of EU influence manifest through the EU's technical assistance, its research and development (aid) funding, and its ‘capacity building' activities towards LMIC actors in the field of pharmaceuticals. Examples of impacts of EU action ranged from the development of new medicines primarily for LMICs, to changes in the availability of generics and on medicines spending in LMICs, and the potential for a more efficient yet less autonomous local market approval process. Most evidence of impact was not peer reviewed. This study raises the question of how to support resilient and efficient global pathways for drug development and regulation while still being responsive and accountable to the local public interest.Key messages There are 3 mechanisms through which EU action impacts on medicines in LMICs: treaty-based agreements, EU internal market regulation, and ‘soft' EU influence.EU decision makers need a reliable understanding of how the EU’s internal and external policies impact on pharmaceuticals globally.

Standing the Test of Time: The Level Playing Field and Rebalancing Mechanism in the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)

ABSTRACT This article explores the dispute settlement elements of the UK–European Union Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s (TCA) novel Level Playing Field (LPF) rebalancing obligations, consisting of a requirement not to lower standards in areas of labour, the environment and subsidy policy such that an adverse material impact results to trade or investment flows between the parties. The test for violations of these provisions is narrowly framed, requiring strong evidence of significant harms and carefully calibrated retaliation. The system contemplates several avenues of dispute settlement including unilateral ex ante retaliation which may be levied against another sector. The article suggests that the substantive and procedural features of the TCA’s LPF mechanism affords reasonably wide opportunity for parties to practice regulatory divergence while evincing a commitment to shared values.

How much multilateralism do we need? Effectiveness of unilateral agricultural mitigation efforts in the global context

Achieving climate neutrality in the European Union (EU) by 2050 will require substantial efforts across all economic sectors, including agriculture. At the same time, an ambitious unilateral EU agricultural mitigation policy is likely to have adverse effects on the sector and may have limited efficiency at global scale due to emission leakage to non-EU regions. To analyse the competitiveness of the EU’s agricultural sector and potential non-CO2 emission leakage conditional on mitigation efforts outside the EU, we apply three economic agricultural sector models. We find that an ambitious unilateral EU mitigation policy in line with efforts needed to achieve the 1.5 °C target globally strongly affects EU ruminant production and trade balance. However, since EU farmers rank among the most greenhouse gas efficient producers worldwide, if the rest of the world were to start pursuing agricultural mitigation efforts too, economic impacts of an ambitious domestic mitigation policy get buffered and EU livestock producers could even start to benefit from a globally coordinated mitigation policy.

The financial burden of African Horse Sickness: a case of the European Union trade ban on South Africa’s horse industry

ABSTRACT Globalisation and the increased movement of goods such as live animals and animal products across national borders can exacerbate the introduction and spread of diseases. This risk can be mitigated through adherence to trade control measures such as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, compliance with SPS measures usually results in additional production and trade costs. This paper applied cost–benefit analysis, using stochastic scenario analysis, to estimate the financial burden of SPS measures on exporting horses from South Africa to the European Union (EU). These measures were instituted following a ban on the direct export of horses from South Africa to the EU, triggered by outbreaks of African Horse Sickness (AHS) in the AHS Controlled Area in the Western Cape Province. Analysis revealed that compliance to existing SPS measures by exporting a horse via a third country is 1.67 times more costly than exporting directly to the EU. A strengthened public-private sector partnership is recommended to jointly identify the most efficient and effective ways to develop capacity for collaborative judicious investment in order to build a resilient horse industry thereby enabling employment creation and economic growth.

Exploring Sustainable Aspects Regarding the Food Supply Chain, Agri-Food Quality Standards, and Global Trade: An Empirical Study among Experts from the European Union and the United States

Sustainability is increasingly a priority in the policies of the European Union, especially in the Common Agricultural Policy. This paper focuses on Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal, and the Farm to Fork Strategy in an attempt to establish a relationship with the European Union’s trade policy. Three selected components of the agri-food sector—the food supply chain, agri-food quality standards, and global trade—are examined in relation to defined sustainability aspects. The aim is to understand the interrelationship between the three components with specific regard to sustainability, to highlight their high complexity and current relevance, to contribute to systematic analysis in this area, and to present current progress. This qualitative–explorative study is empirically supported by a survey of market experts, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union and the United States is used as an example. The results show the complexity between the relationships of the three components with a focus on sustainability and reveal a deep uncertainty. The most notable results are the limited level of knowledge and the insufficient attention from business representatives to sustainability aspects. Finally, the study identifies the state of integrating a sustainable perspective into European Union trade policy and provides suggestions for further research.

The Politicization of European Union Trade Policy: Radical-Left Euroskeptic Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

This study aims to analyze the correlation between radical-left Euroskeptic (RLE) activity and European Union (EU) trade policy by focusing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At the beginning of TTIP negotiations, the agreement was not high on political agendas and was not a major concern within European society. Thus, its salience was low. This initial lack of interest stemmed from the fact that the TTIP, as an economic and technical issue, did not draw public attention. This study shows that RLEs profoundly affected public opinion on the TTIP by increasing its salience during the European parliamentary elections in 2014 in France and Germany. Second, RLEs involved social actors and non-governmental organizations in anti-TTIP campaigns and channeled European anxieties into the STOP TTIP European Citizens’ Initiative. Third, RLEs used this proposed agreement between the EU and the United States to increase polarization within European society and ideological cleavages within the European Parliament. Finally, we can assume that an anti-TTIP campaign promoted by radical-right Euroskeptics would have had different drivers. Thus, my findings have implications for understanding the correlation between RLE activity and the politicization of EU trade policy, and they suggest some avenues for future research.

Do investors care about carbon emissions under the European Environmental Policy?

AbstractWe explore the extent to which cross‐sectional differences in carbon dioxide emissions matter for future valuations of European firms regulated under the European Union Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Counterintuitively, we find that firm‐level emissions share a robust concave relationship with future market valuations. Initially, market valuations increase in emissions potentially because emissions are considered essential for normal production processes; however, the valuation premium decreases and becomes negative beyond a threshold of emissions due to looming regulatory and transition risks. Firms in the lower quartile of emissions trade at an average premium of 2.42%, against a 20.78% discount in the upper quartile (the peak is 3.85%). Importantly, the concave relationship obtains only in smaller firms with lower analyst coverage and lower institutional ownership, and the predictive power of emissions is limited to firms with no reported investments in clean technology. Therefore, policymakers might consider promoting the development and diffusion of green technologies.

When actions do not match aspirations - comparison of the European Union policy claims against what has been negotiated for health services, trade and investment

BackgroundObligations arising from trade and investment agreements can affect how governments can regulate and organise health systems. The European Union has made explicit statements of safeguarding policy space for health systems. We assessed to what extent health systems were safeguarded in trade negotiations using the European Union (EU) negotiation proposals for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the negotiated agreement for the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).MethodsWe assessed if and to what extent the European Union policy assurances were upheld in trade negotiations. Our assessment was made using three process tracing informed tests. The tests examined: i) what was covered in negotiation proposals of services and investment chapters, ii) if treatment of health services differed from treatment of another category of services (audiovisual services) with similar EU Treaty considerations, and iii) if other means of general exceptions, declarations or emphases on right to regulate could have resulted in the same outcome.ResultsOur analysis shows that the European Union had sought to secure policy space for publicly funded health services for services chapter, but not for investment and investment protection chapters. In comparison to audiovisual services, exceptions for health services fall short from those on audiovisual services. There is little evidence that the same outcome could have been achieved using other avenues.ConclusionsThe European Union has not achieved its own assurances of protection of regulatory policy space for health services in trade negotiations. The European Union trade negotiation priorities need to change to ensure that its negotiation practices comply with its own assurances for health services and sustainable financing of health systems.

Unspoken SPS-Plus and SPS-Minus Aspirations: Biotechnologies in EU and US Trade Agreements

In the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US approach to science-based risks and trade restrictions prevailed over that of the European Union (EU). The EU, dissatisfied with the margin of action available when “relevant scientific evidence is insufficient”, largely kept intact its internal practice on marketing and importing genetically modified (GM) crops and GM-containing products. The goal of this article is to ascertain whether these regulatory preferences of the US and the EU translate into their post-Biotech external trade efforts. US and EU preferential trade agreements are scanned for rules on trade in biotechnology goods or the use of precautionary elements in regulation. It transpires that neither bloc systematically tries (or manages) to bend trade agreements to accommodate its defensive or offensive trade interests in this field. Among the possible reasons for this apparent inertia are the US confidence in the WTO baseline and the EU preference for a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to its trade-restrictive policy in this area.

From Extra-Territorial Leverage and Transnational Environmental Protection to Distortions of Competition: The Level Playing Field in the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Abstract This article inquires to what extent the European Union (EU)–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) may help safeguard high levels of transnational environmental protection, taking into consideration potential reductions in UK levels of protection and the ensuing effects. The article encompasses an analysis of the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) Chapters in recent EU trade or trade and investment Agreements (FTAs); in this respect, it emphasises that the TCA’s provisions are innovative. However, the TCA has marked a shift from the EU’s initial attempts to exercise its extra-territorial leverage and push for high levels of transnational environmental protection to a focus on the stricto sensu economic level playing field. This narrow focus cannot possibly capture many aspects of environmental protection. The article thus concludes that, from an environmental perspective, the TCA’s provisions are far from ambitious. Further, it develops some considerations on the way forward for the EU institutions, as they start to rethink their approach to TSD Chapters.

Registrability of pattern marks: Louis Vuitton’s Damier Azur before the General Court of the EU

By a judgment handed down in Damier Azur,1 the General Court (GC) of the EU has reversed an invalidity decision rendered by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), concerning the registration as a European Union Trade Mark (EUTM) of a pattern mark claimed by the French luxury company Louis Vuitton. The EUIPO found that the mark was unregistrable due to lack of distinctive character as per Article 7(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the European Union Trade Mark (EUTMR).2 The EUIPO also ruled out that the mark had acquired distinctive character through use in accordance with Article 7(3) EUTMR. In examining the appeal against the invalidity decision, the GC agreed on the finding of lack of inherent distinctiveness but held that the EUIPO had wrongly established that the mark had no acquired distinctiveness....

Everything is NOT Awesome. A Lego Brick as a 3D Trade Mark

This paper discusses the reasoning of the protection of the flagship Lego products – the rectangular brick and the Lego minifigure as the trade marks from the perspective of European Union trade mark system and the Polish legal system. The main part is dedicated to the most important absolute grounds for refusal of trade mark registration, i. e. the distinctive character and the shape of goods necessary to obtain a technical result. However, it is crucial to understand the history, especially the history of legal protection, of both the brick and the minifigure. In the end, the Lego case allows to draw general conclusions about the overlapping of different intellectual property protection regimes and the relation of public domain to the trade mark registration. All these considerations are presented with the use of both comparative and doctrinal method.