Social Standards in EU and US Trade Agreements

Evgeny Postnikov is a lecturer in international relations in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests center on international political economy, especially trade policy and its links with non-trade issues, such as labor rights and the environment. He is particularly interested in the rise of bilateralism in global trade and the role the EU and others play in it. His work has been published in several leading outlets, including the Review of International Organizations, Journal of European Public Policy, Environmental Politics, New Political Economy and Journal of Common Market Studies.

• Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Social Standards in EU and US PTAs: An Overview Chapter 3: Theory and Methodology Chapter 4: The Causes of Social Standards in EU PTAs Chapter 5: The Causes of Social Standards in US PTAs Chapter 6: The Effects of Social Standards in EU and US PTAs Chapter 7: Conclusion

"Challenging conventional wisdoms, Postnikov persuasively argues how and why the US has stricter social standards than the EU in the design of preferential trade agreements. This book should be required reading for those convinced that globalization leads to a race to the bottom. Postnikov unveils how institutional factors and interest groups determine variation in labor and environmental standards in the global economy. Theoretically and empirically rich, Postnikov’s book makes a major contribution to research on social standards in both developed and developing economies." - Nita Rudra, Professor, Georgetown University, USA."Evgeny Postnikov has written an empirically rich and engaging account of the design of labour and environmental standard clauses in EU and US bilateral trade agreements. I also warmly recommended the book to those seeking insights into the inter-institutional dynamics of EU and US trade negotiations." - Johan Adriaensen, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University, Netherlands.