Assessing the EU’s ‘social’ trade policy from an external europeanization perspective: The case of the generalised system of preferences

Trade policy is the most significant European Union (EU) policy area. Starting with the genesis of the European Communities in the 1950s, trade has been the stimulus of European integration. In 2013, the Single Market area has the biggest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, while the EU is the leading global exporter of goods and one of the biggest importers (European Commission 2013c). The EU also uses its trade policy to pursue social goals such as the promotion of human rights, core labour standards and environmental and good governance principles. It does so through its wide network of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs). A PTA is any trade agreement by which the EU offers trade preferences to countries outside its borders. The wide network of PTAs offers an international regulatory regime of trade that operates in parallel with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This chapter focuses on a specific type of PTA, namely the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). The particularity of the GSP compared to the rest of the EU’s PTAs is that the trade preferences it offers are non-reciprocal and that Social Conditionality (SC) governs the participation to the scheme. In other words, trade preferences are conditional to the adoption and implementation of a number of international human and labour rights, environmental and good governance conventions.