European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Sustainable development | Brussels, latest update in November 2020

Implementation of the Trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapter in trade agreements - TSD committees and civil society meetings

In most trade agreements since the 2011 EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement, an advisory group is set up in the EU and in the partner country or countries to advice on the implementation of the sustainable development chapters in EU trade agreements. Those chapters contain commitments to respect multilateral labour and environmental agreements and to ensure that labour and environment standards are not lowered in order to attract trade. On this web-page you will find information on the EU DAGs (domestic advisory groups) and on joint meetings between DAG members from both parties.

Canada

• EU DAG members
• 12/09/2018: Civil society forum, Brussels.
• More information

CARIFORUM

• EU DAG Members
• 14/11/2015 in Brussels: Joint statement of the first meeting of the Consultative Committee
• 20/04/2016 in Brussels: Joint statement of the second meeting
• 06/11/2017 in Trinidad & Tobago: Joint statement of the third meeting
• More information

Central America

• EU DAG members
• 18/11/2014 in Nicaragua: report from the Trade and sustainable development board to the civil society dialogue forum [EN]  [ES]
• 28/05/2015 in Brussels: report of the second meeting [EN]  [ES]
• 14/06/2016 in Honduras: report of the third meeting [EN]  [ES]
• No Civil Society Forum held in 2017
• 12/06/2018 in Brussels: report of the fourth meeting [EN]  [ES]
• More information

Colombia/Ecuado/Peru

• EU DAG members
• 10-12/12/2018 in Quito: minutes of the meeting [ES]
• 13/11/2020, virtual means: Agenda (ES) - Joint communication of the parties to civil society [ES]
• More information

Georgia

• EU DAG members
• 26/01/2016 in Tbilisi: Joint statement of the first TSD committee meeting
• 30/11/2016 in Brussels: Joint statement of the second TSD committee meeting
• 20/03/2018 in Tbilisi: Joint statement of the third TSD committee meeting
• June 2018: 2018-2020 work plan for the implementation of the TSD chapter
• 26-27/3/2019 in Brussels: Joint statement of the fourth TSD committee meeting and conclusions of the DAG to DAG meeting
• More information

Japan

• EU DAG members
• 02/02/2020 in Tokyo: First Joint Dialogue with Civil Society
• More information

Moldova

• EU DAG members
• 18/10/2016 in Brussels: Joint statement of the second meeting to the civil society forum
• 17/10/2017 in Chisinau: Joint statement of the third meeting to the civil society forum
• 04/07/2019 in Chisinau: Joint statement of the fourth meeting to the civil society forum and statement of the domestic advisory groups
• More information

SADC

• 17/10/2017 in South Africa: Event report of the High level Civil society forum

Ukraine

• EU DAG members
• Rules of Procedure of the trade and sustainable development sub-committee (all languages)
• 30/05/2017 in Brussels: first trade and sustainable development sub-committee: joint statement and operational conclusions
• 13/11/2018 in Kiev: second trade and sustainable development sub-committee: joint statement and operational conclusions
• 06/11/2019 in Brussels: third trade and sustainable development sub-committee: joint statement and operational conclusions
• More information

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Definitions

• DAG : Domestic Advisory Group; a balanced representation of business organisations, trade unions and environmental / other organisations. To become member of an EU DAG, an EU organisation needs to be:
  
  • Independent not-for-profit organisation
  • Represent and promote EU interests
  • Have specific expertise or competence on areas covered by the trade and sustainable development chapter
  • Registered in both the Transparency Register of the European Commission/European Parliament and in the civil society dialogue database of DG Trade
  • Some members are designated by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
     
• DAG meeting : the EU sets up a DAG for every trade agreement. The DAG members meets several times a year to discuss the issues included in the Trade and sustainable development chapter. Their advice are given to the trade partners who will discuss them in their annual meeting.
• DAG-to-DAG meeting : the DAGs from the EU and from the partner country or countries meet once a year, back-to-back with the joint open session meeting.
• Joint open session meeting : are open to all civil society organisations and non-DAG members. These meetings take place once a year.