Deborah Martens

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Political Sciences

The main question addressed in this dissertation is whether trade arrangements, and especially EU bilateral trade agreements, that were developed to promote labour rights can improve labour conditions in third countries. We focused extensively on the trade and sustainable development chapters and the civil society mechanisms established through the...

There is a growing concern about the extent to which multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), designed to improve social and environmental sustainability in global supply chains, give a meaningful voice to less powerful stakeholders. Trade unions are one particular civil society group whose participation in MSIs has received little scholarly attention...

Since the Lisbon Treaty (2009), promoting ‘free and fair trade’ has explicitly become one of the objectives of the European Union’s (EU) relations with the wider world (TEU art 3.5). In addition, the latest trade strategy of the EU, ‘Trade for All’ (2015), emphasises the need for a value-based trade policy. It refers to the promotion of sustainable...

Labour standards provisions within the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters of EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are presented as a key element of the EU's commitment to a ‘value-based trade agenda’. But criticism of TSD chapters has led the European Commission to commit to improving their implementation and enforcement, creating a critic...

Civil society has apparently been granted an important role in the monitoring of the sustainable development chapters in the new generation European Union (EU) trade agreements. While a debate about the role and functioning of these civil society mechanisms is emerging, we lack a profound comparative analysis of the treaty provisions establishing t...

Labour norms are increasingly considered in trade relations, but is the protection of labour standards a necessary condition for export to the EU? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis, based on countries that export pineapples to the EU, shows that labour standards protection matters in combination with distance, zero tariffs and institutional qualit...

While the inclusion of labour rights in European Union (EU) trade agreements has become an ‘unobjectionable norm’, analyses of their impact have been largely absent from the literature. This article aims to partly fill this gap in existing research by examining the impact of labour rights commitments in the EU–Peru–Colombia agreement, with particul...

In the last decade the EU has embarked on a series of deep and comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Each of these agreements includes a chapter on trade and sustainable development, encompassing labour (and environmental) provisions. Against the background of increased liberalization and rising attention paid to sustainable development, EU F...

This study critically reflects on the involvement of civil society actors in the sustainable development chapters of recent EU trade agreements. It discusses how civil society mechanisms may legitimise the underlying neoliberal orientation of the agreements through co-optation of critical actors. Starting from a critical perspective and drawing on...

This chapter aims to provide a concise overview of evolutions in European Union (EU) trade policy towards developing countries. In line with the general purpose of this volume, it also consid- ers the importance of Commissioner Cecilia Malmström’s Trade for All (2015) strategy in this regard.

Since the 1990s, a public debate has increasingly emerged about the ramifications of the advancing trade governance agenda with respect to governments' domestic policy space to develop equitable and sustainable development. In this paper we firstly conduct a literature study to explain how one can read the scholarly debate and assessments on policy...

Si la UE realmente está comprometida con la promoción de los derechos laborales a través de acuerdos comerciales, debería invertir más personas y recursos en este objetivo y mejorar su enfoque de la vinculación entre comercio y trabajo en tres aspectos: (i) la participación de la sociedad civil en la supervisión debería ser más sustancial; (ii) la...

A novelty in the new generation of European Union free trade agreements is the chapter on trade and sustainable development. This includes references to labour and environmental provisions that should be respected in the frame- work of the agreement as a whole. Civil society organisations have, appar- ently, been granted an important role in the fo...

In the last decade the EU has embarked on a series of deep and comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Each of these agreements includes a chapter on trade and sustainable development, encompassing labour (and environmental) provisions. Against the background of increased liberalisation and rising attention paid to sustainable development, EU F...