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At a multilateral level and as a WTO Member, the EU is actively involved in the work of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment and promotes WTO efforts aiming at liberalizing trade in goods and services which can deliver environmental benefits. In particular, the EU, together with 17 other WTO Members, is participating in plurilateral negotiations for an Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA). The EU actively supports WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies, with the objective of contributing to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6. (see later under section 4.1.4.1). The EU is also actively involved in the work of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development, making a considerable effort to ensure the proper functioning of this Committee.

At a bilateral level, the EU integrates labour and environmental considerations when negotiating its trade agreements, through a dedicated chapter on trade and sustainable development. Recent bilateral agreements with such chapters include those with Canada, South Korea, Central America, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, Singapore, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. Trade and Sustainable Development chapters include commitments to ratify and effectively implement fundamental International Labour Organization conventions and Multilateral Environmental Agreements, as well as commitments to provisions on the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources (e.g. timber, fish and wildlife), and the promotion of practices favouring sustainable development and responsible business practices. They also aim to prevent the risk of a race to the bottom, by prohibiting derogations from or lack of enforcement of domestic environmental or labour laws in order to encourage trade and investment.

At a unilateral level, the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance of the EU Generalised System of Preference (GSP+) provides increased market access to eligible countries, without asking the trading partner to do the same and conditional on their ratification and effective implementation of a number of labour conventions, environmental agreements, human rights and good governance instruments.

The EU is the most open market for developing countries' exports and is at the forefront of using trade policy to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development in the poorest countries. For example the Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative, opens the EU market in full to Least Developed Countries, without tariffs or quotas, has been effective. Studies have shown the EBA scheme has increased the exports of products granted duty-free access to the EU to Least Developed Countries by up to 10%.

The EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) also represents a flagship of the EU trade policy instrument to support sustainable development and good governance in developing countries, granting special tariff rate cuts to developing countries. The EU has relaxed its rules of origin in the GSP, making them simpler, easier to comply with and offering greater possibilities for sourcing based on regional and trans-regional cumulation between countries.

On 28 January 2016, the European Commission presented its first report on the implementation of the GSP. The Report presents the three arrangements of the GSP, their current beneficiaries and some basic trade statistics. It is accompanied by a detailed progress report on the EU Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development, Human Rights and Good Governance (GSP+) with regard to the 14 beneficiaries. The next biennial report on the impact of GSP is due in December 2017.

The EU and its Member States collectively drive global ‘Aid for trade’ efforts as the world's largest donor accounting for more than a third of global support, to the current tune of €12 billion per year. As a component of Official Development Assistance, EU Aid for Trade is programmed according to beneficiary needs, but with clear priorities, including support for implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement and an ongoing commitment to prioritize the Least Developed Countries. Moreover, in its recent Communication on a New European Consensus on Development the EU committed itself to further coordinate development cooperation programmes (such as Aid for Trade) with trade policy tools to support sustainable development, including inclusive growth.

The EU considers that private sustainability schemes can be beneficial for sustainable development, providing information to consumers who can alter their buying habits according to their principles. For this reason, the EU is working to better promote fair and ethical trade schemes with a view to raising awareness on both the supply and the demand side and developing, by this means, more sustainable trade opportunities for small producers in third countries.

Fair and ethical trade schemes are promoted by implementing recently concluded free trade agreements and through the network of EU delegations. The EU has also launched a new project with the International Trade Centre on fair and ethical trade , involving a study of the demand for certified products in the EU and the design of an ’EU City for Fair and Ethical Trade’ award. This project will complement past work done with the International Trade Centre to promote small businesses’ participation in private sustainability assurance schemes.

The EU seeks to promote economic growth and job creation by pursuing a progressive trade and investment agenda as well as advocating sustainable development in the multilateral context.