Policy Paper 30 April 2021 GT5: Greening International Trade Through EU Regulation and Standardisation, by Pascal Lamy, Geneviève Pons & Pierre Leturcq (europejacquesdelors.eu)

The European Union’s Green Deal has considerably sped up the EU's ambitions to reduce GHG emissions and sets a more binding framework for biodiversity conservation both on land and in waters. In this respect, it calls for a radical transformation of all of Europe’s production systems. The Green Deal also places greater emphasis on strengthening sustainability rules on products in circulation in the single market and explores new policy areas, such as corporate due diligence obligations on their entire value chains. 

Among the initiatives underway, the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 22 October 2020 calling for the establishment of a legislative framework to combat deforestation is a promising example. It sheds light on what the EU will have to undertake in the coming months to extend the scope of due diligence obligation for European and foreign companies, thereby addressing the environmental and ethical concerns at the core of this resolution. 

This fifth policy paper in our Greening Trade series seeks to determine how, and through which instruments the European Union can and must harness its market power to ensure a higher level of supply chain sustainability at the international level, whether through regulation, improved controls, encouragement and supervision of voluntary approaches, or new strategies such as due diligence obligations to ensure the sustainability of supply chains, which have yet to be fully explored and developed. 

GT5 - Greening International Trade Through EU Regulation and Standardisation

This fifth policy paper in our Greening Trade series seeks to determine how, and through which instruments the European Union can and must harness its market-power to ensure a higher level of supply

https://www.europejacquesdelors.eu/publications/greening-international-trade