The European Union has
been one of the most active players in negotiating and concluding free trade
agreements with an extensive network of trade partners from all continents.
Whether partnering with developed or developing economies, the EU has been
consistent in ‘exporting’ its non-trade values – such as sustainable
development, good governance, and human rights – to its trading partners
through FTAs. Using examples of the EU’s new generation of FTAs, we explain
that even if the EU is ambitious in exporting a wide range of non-trade values,
these provisions are mostly hortatory in nature, and thus effectively leave
implementation to parties’ goodwill because the sanctioning mechanisms are not
always provided. However, evidence from some of the EU’s FTAs shows that,
despite the soft nature, sustainability commitments have been taken seriously
in some cases in the implementation process.