Global economies are facing multiple interrelated crises, where trade policy plays a key but often understated role. From sanctions to the Russian economy to decoupling from China, and reshaping economies in the face of climate emergencies, European countries are increasingly using trade and industrial policy to address geoeconomics and geopolitical challenges. Conceptualising trade policy in this fluid space requires an exchange between different geographies, sectors, and approaches. This panel shapes the debate by looking at the trajectories in front of EU and UK trade policies; the importance of implementation and enforcement in EU trade; and the intersection between trade, sustainable development and digital transformation. The panel combines legal, economic, and policy perspectives on the role of trade and digital policies in addressing global challenges.

This panel is organised by the UACES-supported TIER network.

Post-Brexit EU-UK relations pose an unprecedented opportunity for comparison between the two, allowing to test hypotheses for divergence and convergence and theorizing about their drivers. Trade policy is a particularly salient area for such comparisons given its prominence in the Brexit discourse.

Ever since the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the UK has regained an autonomous trade policy. The UK has put this autonomy to active use over the past years. After replicating most of the EU’s trade agreements through a “trade continuity programme”, it embarked on concluding trade agreements with countries with which the EU did not have trade deals in place such as New Zealand and Australia.

This paper compares EU and UK post-Brexit trade policy from the vantage point of innovative normative elements that are included in their respective recent trade agreements. The paper’s tentative argument is that contrary to the Brexiteers’ rhetoric on “free trade”, UK trade policy not only closely follows core elements of the EU’s normative trade policy (such as trade and sustainable development chapters and essential elements clauses), but even attempts to outperform it with even more innovative elements (for example, chapters on gender and animal welfare).

The paper hypothesizes, furthermore, that these normative innovations are early signs of a “virtuous rivalry” between the EU and the UK on the global stage, and may signal a joint normative commitment that can underpin closer cooperation in foreign policy in the future, which is all the more necessary in an environment characterized by heightened geopolitical tensions.

The EU as a Global Digital Actor: Institutionalising Global Data Protection, Trade, and Cybersecurity” published by Hart, 2022 is the first book-length treatment of the advancement of EU global data flows and digital trade through the framework of European institutionalisation. Drawing on case studies of EU-US, EU-Japan and EU-China relations it charts the theoretical and empirical approaches at play. This paper builds on the book which has its goal to illustrate how the EU has pioneered high standards in data flows and how it engages in significant digital trade reforms, committed to those standards. The book marks a major shift in how institutionalisation and the EU should be viewed as it relates to two of the more extraordinary areas of global governance: trade and data flows.

Trade agreements are important instruments of international economic governance. Extensive literature on international negotiations shows that states can sometimes agree to terms they object to in negotiations, and the literature on public policy implementation has revealed that this can lead to ‘foot dragging’ and incomplete implementation, which combined with lack of capacity can lead to FTAs being ratified but not resulting in desired gains due to implementation problems. In recent years, and especially in the context of the 2021 Trade Policy Review- An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy, the European Commission has shifted its focus to implementation of FTAs and beyond that to enforcement of FTAs. The dispute brought against South Korea under the trade and sustainable development chapter (TSDC) of that FTA illustrates this shift. The new institutional figure of the Chief Enforcement Officer has been tasked with ensuring that EU FTAs are properly implemented by partners, and creates a contact point for business and civil society to lodge evidence of FTA non-compliance in partners across all aspects of FTAs. Triangulating data from documents from the Chief Enforcement Officer’s office (following a freedom of information request), Commission FTA Implementation reports, Minutes of FTA Joint Committees this paper will take initial steps towards a broader analysis and understanding of the EU’s approach to FTA enforcement, by categorising the types of matters raised (by are of the FTA, topic, economic significance, partner) to understand the types of implementation challenges that actually lead to enforcement activity (dispute settlement through the FTA or WTO, or threat thereof) and the conditions that need to be present for this to occur.

The paper examines the implementation of Digital Corridor, which uses blockchain technology to support seamless trade and sustainability in international trade. While research highlights the importance of digital chapter in trade agreements, there is lack of clear guidance on how to design, monitor and enforce Digital Corridor frameworks in trade agreements. Commitments undertaken through trade agreements primarily focus on countries supporting trade facilitation but leave discussing how sustainability obligations regarding environment and working conditions, these still rest on crude checks and balances. The growing consumer demand for ethically sourced and produced goods requires increased traceability and transparency in line with growing emphasis on sustainable sourcing. Currently information flows along the supply chain on environmental issues and labour conditions are scarce and opaque. The paper uses the example of Kenya, a country where the UK has piloted the first Digital Corridor, to discuss that blockchain technology can revolutionise monitoring and has the potential to ensure sustainability via compliance with environmental and labour issues under trade agreements. The transition from current form to blockchain enabled monitoring would, however require increased engagement and concerted efforts by both private and public stakeholders.