Publication
European Commission Review of Trade and Sustainable Development - Ireland position paper
From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
As part of the European Commission Trade Policy Review 2021, the Commission initiated a review of its approach to negotiations of Trade and Sustainable Development provisions in EU Free Trade Agreements.
Ireland warmly welcomes the Commission’s review of the implementation and enforcement of Trade and Sustainable Development chapters (TSD) in trade agreements. It is clear that the sustainability agenda is growing in importance and that trade policy must play its part.
This paper details Ireland’s priorities for the review, which was submitted by the Tánaiste to the European Commissioner for Trade, Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis. In it, Ireland sets out its priorities for the TSD review by addressing the scope of TSD commitments including support for recent initiatives on trade and gender; the need for enhanced transparency, monitoring and implementation; the requirement to exercise maximum leverage to get commitments to TSD goals and the need to cooperate with international organisations which will support the multilateral rules based system. Ireland asks the Commission to prioritise incentive-based models to achieve TSD outcomes; and highlights the benefits of sustainability impact assessments to identify the major economic, social and environmental impacts of FTAs.
