Thread by @SamuelMarcLowe

Timely piece by @MESandbu.

On enforceability point: argument often made that US model, which technically allows for environmental provisions to be enforced by state-to-state mechanism, may look good, but in practice no evidence of it being used successfully, but ...

https://twitter.com/MESandbu/status/1148214105171484672

@MESandbu in reality it depends on how the text is drafted. @ChadBown has made the point that reason US-Guatemala case failed is b'cos it required US to prove not only that Guatemala wasn't upholding labour commitments, but also that doing so was having material impact on trade ...

@MESandbu @ChadBown which is very difficult to prove. But that doesn’t mean having enforceable provisions destined to fail, it just means that if you want them to work the legal text needs to be drafted differently.

@MESandbu @ChadBown So not enough to argue that "making environment and labour commitments in trade agreements enforceable doesn't matter anyway b'cos no evidence it works". Because actually it depends on how you approach it, and EU could approach it differently, if it wanted.