EU External Trade Governance: Implementation, Sustainability and the Politics of Partnership

Abstract

EU trade policy has become a central arena where climate ambition, economic security, and partnership politics converge, with the EU embedding sustainable development norms in its trade agreements, introducing unilateral environmental and labour regulations and securing access to critical raw materials abroad. This panel brings together research that interrogates these developments through three interconnected themes: sustainable development, implementation and the politics of partnership. First, the panel examines the implementation infrastructure of the EU’s trade regime. While modern preferential trade agreements are often described as “living agreements,” little is known about what ongoing governance through committees, working groups, and structured dialogues actually entails. Second, the panel investigates the EU’s trade–sustainability agenda in trade policy. The introduction of state-to-state commitments on environmental and labour issues and due diligence requirements for business operators has provoked new political tensions. The contributions critically assess how these measures redistribute costs and responsibilities, and how these dynamics interact with broader debates. Third, the panel explores the politics of partnership in an increasingly geoeconomic world. As global competition over supply chains and critical raw materials intensifies, the EU’s partnerships with producing countries take on renewed strategic significance. The papers analyse the tension between narratives of partnership among equals and enduring structural inequalities. Collectively, the panel highlights the need to conceptualise EU trade policy not merely as global market integration, but as a multidimensional governance project in which environmental and labour objectives, economic development concerns and geopolitical calculations increasingly intersect.

Title	Details
Implementing EU Trade Agreements. What joint Committees actually do	View Paper Details
Who Bears the Costs? The Uneven Politics of Support under the EU’s Deforestation Regulation	View Paper Details
Structured Agency and the Limits of Global South Agency in a Geoeconomic Age	View Paper Details
From Trade to Security: The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Partnerships in a Geopolitical Context	View Paper Details
The Domestic Roots of Contestation: Government Narratives on the Liberal International Order	View Paper Details