Worldwide Expansion of the EU Precautionary Principle Through Free Trade Agreements

Due to the freezing of multilateralism in international trade, a change can be perceived in the external trade policy of the EU. In recent years, the EU has signed different bilateral and regional agreements (Free Trade Agreements—FTAs) with which it has tried to position itself as a key player in the international trading system. By doing so it also aims to relaunch a multilateral approach to world trade. Until 2006, EU bilateral agreements principally served non-economic purposes (neighborhood and development objectives), while EU economic interests were served by multilateral agreements. Since then, FTAs have largely been justified on economic interests. However, they also serve to promote EU values and principles, including the precautionary one. The “precautionary principle” ensures that the EU can continue to protect health and the environment even if this affects trade, in situations where scientific information is not conclusive or insufficient. This principle has been included in several recent FTAs concluded by the EU, namely the CETA; JETA and the EU/Mercosur agreement. Still, in some cases, the implementation of the precautionary principle has led to the creation of deadlocks in the negotiations of bilateral agreements—as in the case of TTIP—or to its implementation—as in the case of the EU/Mercosur. This Chapter aims to analyze the role of the precautionary principle in FTAs concluded or negotiated by the EU and whether the EU has been trying to expand its understanding thereof through FTAs.