This is from EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia
It begs to be said, again and again: No EU trade agreement will ever lower our level of protection of consumers, or food safety, or of the environment. Trade agreements will not change our laws on GMOs, or how to produce safe beef, or how to protect the environment.
This statement really gets us to the core of the regulatory autonomy debate. There can be little doubt that trade agreements allow challenges to domestic laws such as the ones she identifies. Whether they will result in a change to those laws is a harder question. Perhaps a change is unlikely for the policy areas she identifies, because they are so sensitive politically. But when such laws violate trade agreements, they can lead to trade sanctions, or in the case of investment agreements compensation. And in several cases, governments have, in fact, changed their laws in response to a trade agreement dispute ruling (recent examples include Seal Products, COOL and Tuna).
