Post-Singapore Architecture of European Trade Policy

The EU Commission's conclusion of a trade agreement with Singapore in 2015 went largely unnoticed by the public eye. Two years later this agreement has captured the public's attention because the European Court of Justice has drafted a report on which specialists areas fall exclusively under the trade policy jurisdiction of the European Union (EU-only). National parliaments will no longer have any participatory rights in the future in these areas. In their article Elisabeth Beer, AK Wien, and Susanne Wixforth, DGB, look at the implications of this ruling. The fact that the EU has gained competence corresponds to a regulatory restriction on member states in terms of sustainability criteria.