Belgium – Economic research services – Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in support of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries

The DG TRADE- specific tool Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) is an ex-ante analysis of the potential economic, social and environmental impacts as well as human rights impacts of a trade negotiation in order to facilitate a better policy mix and coherence between the objective of trade liberalisation and the EU policy objective of sustainable development and respect for human rights. This SIA would cover Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Countries (Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and UAE). This will feed information into and help steer the negotiations, help identify trade- offs and ensure that the related policy choices are optimised.