Conditionality in EU Trade Policy: The Impact of Peru and Colombia Trade Agree
The European Union constitutes a sui generis international organisation and presents itself as a normative actor. One of the principles the EU has been more keen on exporting is Human Rights not only among candidates and neighbours, but also among third States through bilateral agreements. The EU uses, therefore, a mechanism of political conditionality, in which the rightful implementation of the criteria written in the legal documents means an increased support in an identified domain. Human Rights, Labour, and Environmental provisions are usually included in those agreements and there is actual pressure on the countries to comply with the demands of the EU at this level as well. Yet, the imperativeness behind these provisions is lower than the enforcement implied in the requirements present in the System of Generalized Preferences (SGP). Paradoxically, SGP promotes less integration and cooperation than bilateral agreements. The present study will use a comparative method to evaluate the evolution of two countries based on their performance in these fields. The countries chosen were Peru and Colombia for having signed a bilateral agreement with the EU in 2012 under which they moved from an SGP framework towards a bilateral cooperation system. It is our objective to find out the impact these provisions had on the countries’ performances in certain fields.
André Matos . amatos@upt.pt
Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique & Instituto Jurídico Portucalense
André Pereira Matos is an Assistant Professor at the Law Department of Universidade Portucalense where he teaches, among others, Political Science and European Union Law. André Matos holds PhD in International Relations from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. André Matos is also the Secretary-General of Portucalense Institute for Legal Research, where he coordinates the research group on Democracy and the 21st Century. He has published in various journals about democracy, the European Union and Turkey.
Daniel Gomes . dgomes.ijp@upt.pt
Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique & Instituto Jurídico Portucalense
Daniel Fernandes Gomes is a Trainee Researcher at the Portucalense Institute for Legal Research where he contributes the most with the research group “Dimensions of Human Rights”. Since July of 2015, Daniel Gomes is graduated in Law by Oporto University with the classification A in the scale of European comparability. Daniel Gomes is also attending the Post-Graduation Course on Human Rights at Coimbra University. He is writing his first articles on issues related to European Union and Human Rights.