Non-Economic Values and Objectives in EU Trade Policy: Different Models of Externalization and Enforcement

Abstract

The Treaty of Lisbon formally empowered the EU to conduct its trade policy in the light of a wide set of non-economic values and objectives such as human rights, sustainable development or international security, to name just a few. Clearly, this task of diffusing and safeguarding non-economic values externally poses a challenge for the EU and its trade policy. This paper aims at examining this challenge by providing a cross-cutting overview of the different ways and models of externalization of non-economic values that the EU can resort to in the field of international trade. In particular, the paper focuses on the mechanisms that accompany those models and which are there to ensure compliance with the envisaged values. The paper focuses on unilateral and bilateral action of the EU in the field of international trade and has both instrumental and conceptual character trying to review the general characteristics of the existent models and the respective ‘compliance mechanisms’ and the challenges attached to them.