China’s Approach to Sustainable Development in Free Trade Agreements

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
China’s Approach to Sustainable Development in Free Trade Agreements
Abstract
The question of how to adequately integrate environment and labor provisions in free trade agreements is still a difficult one for both States and academicians. This article explores China’s approach to environment and labor issues in free trade agreements. For reference and comparison, it relies on the European Union’s and the United States’ approaches in their respective FTAs. The article identifies China’s preference for a case-by-case approach to the inclusion of environmental chapters in its FTAs. Additionally, in most FTAs it avoids to include provisions on labor standards. These two preferences represent major divergences from the European Union’s and the United States’ approaches, characterized by inclusion of chapters on environment and labor in all their modern FTAs. The article also finds that China’s FTAs rely solely on consultations and cooperation for the implementation of environmental and labor provisions, within the framework of Joint Committees and avoid the inclusion of civil society mechanisms. Moreover, resolution of disputes relies exclusively on consultations, in a diverse procedure than the one applicable to trade disputes. Despite alignment with the European Union model, this is another major point of divergence with the United States’ model, which applies the same enforcement mechanism for both environment and labor issues and trade issues and includes the possibility of applying sanctions. Finally, the article concludes that China’s options with regards to the treatment of environment and labor concerns in its free trade agreements aligns with both its domestic governance approach and its approach to international cooperation.
Publication
Law and Development Review
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
367-384
Date
2023-06-01
Language
en
ISSN
1943-3867
Accessed
8/10/23, 1:52 PM
Library Catalog
Rights
De Gruyter expressly reserves the right to use all content for commercial text and data mining within the meaning of Section 44b of the German Copyright Act.
Extra
Publisher: De Gruyter
Citation
Wei, D., & Rafael, Â. P. (2023). China’s Approach to Sustainable Development in Free Trade Agreements. Law and Development Review, 16(2), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2023-0053