Promoting and Enforcing Sustainability: The Dispute Settlement Practice in the New Generation of EU Trade Agreements

The EU trade policy is characterized by the constant effort to respect and promote sustainable development. At the bilateral level, the EU pursues its political agenda through the new generation of trade agreements (TAs) which also feature ambitious chapters focused on trade and sustainable development (TSD Chapters). The EU has recently activated the bilateral dispute settlement mechanisms (DSMs) of the new TAs. The reports issued so far consistently emphasize issues related to sustainability. Notably, the Korea – Labour Commitments case specifically focuses on enforcing certain provisions of the TSD Chapter within the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. The purpose of this work is to highlight those sustainability issues in the contentious proceedings triggered by the EU after a brief presentation of the key aspects of the TAs procedures dealing with the complaints raised by the contracting parties. In an effort to propose as complete a picture as possible for our analysis, attention is also devoted to the practice of bilateral litigation that has not (yet) been settled (a complaint raised by the EU against Algeria) or is being resolved diplomatically (the initiative launched by the Dutch NGO CNV Internationaal).