Sustainability in Trade : A comparative study of EU trade agreements with Central America and  the Southern African Development Community 

What affects the sustainability provisions of EU Free Trade Agreements? I have sought the answer to this through studying the FTAs in place with Central America and the Southern African Development Community. The sustainability provisions in these two agreements show a variation in the level of strength. Based on previous research I present four hypotheses on the matter; integration into GVCs, the activity of environmental movement organisations, political representation of green parties and economic power. In total I use 11 different measurements to test the hypotheses. Through a comparative study of the two agreements I find that GVC integration and green party prevalence does not explain the variation found, but there are possibly explanations to be found in the other two variables studied. The aspiration of this paper is to contribute with insight on the decision making process of the ever expanding EU FTAs, especially with developing regions