The European Union is an extremely active international actor in the area of trade, being widely involved in the negotiation and conclusion of free-trade agreements (FTAs) with partner countries.  Many of them, such as the CETA with Canada, the now aborted transatlantic TTIP or the EU-Japan FTA, made the news and spurred intense social debate.

All new-generation free-trade agreements include a sustainable-development clause between the parties promoting, among other things, a set of labour standards as well as conventions of the International Labour Organisation. For instance, most of the EU’s FTAs contain provisions to protect the right to collective bargaining and freedom of association, even to forbid discrimination at the place of work. Legal enforcement has been the object of an institutional and political debate, with the European Parliament calling for years for better enforcement of environmental provisions. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the ruling German coalition, among others, have also called for stronger obligations and better enforcement.

On December 17th 2018, for the first time in history, the European Commission sought consultations with a partner state, South Korea, for failure to respect a labour-standard obligation in an EU FTA. This is a welcome development, which comes almost ten years after the entry into force of the agreement and the prolonged failure of the Asian EU partner to ratify and implement four of the eight fundamental ILO conventions.