Promoting EU Rules and Norms Beyond Its Borders: The Case of the Eu's Voluntary Partnership Agreements in Africa and the Rise of China

Since the mid-2000s, the EU has sought to negotiate Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) with timber exporting countries in Africa as well as Asia and Latin America. VPAs are legally binding trade agreements that seek to ensure that timber imported into the EU is not illegally cut. VPAs are thus one interesting example for a recent trend where the EU seeks to promote environmental sustainability, development and governance reforms through trade agreements. The success of the VPAs has been mixed. Only six out of 15 countries that started negotiations with the EU have signed a VPA. Moreover, in those countries that have signed a VPA the level of implementation varies considerably across countries. The paper seeks to explain the EU's mixed record in establishing VPAs by focusing on the domestic economic and political incentives in the target country to implement VPAs and China's rise as a timber market. The paper builds particularly on insights from African country cases.