EU Global Value Chain Regulation: A Practical Guide

This practical guide enables practitioners, compliance professionals, and anyone with an interest in the international dimension of supply chains to navigate the EU’s approach to regulating global value chains.

Global Value Chains - a central feature of international trade and the world economy - present unique regulatory challenges and opportunities. Taking examples of recently adopted EU legal instruments, the book examines how the EU is applying environmental and labour standards along supply chains connected to its internal market. Covering due diligence requirements, new rules tackling deforestation and the EU’s landmark carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), it explores the synergies between these different regulatory tools and draws comparisons with approaches to global value chain regulation in other jurisdictions.

The emergence of this rapidly expanding regulatory framework is not without controversy. Written by a legal practitioner working for the European Commission, the book situates the EU’s approach to global value chain regulation in the framework of broader discussions on the complex interface between international trade law, international environmental law, and the UN sustainable development goals.

Structured as a contextualised, accessible guide, the book decodes the emerging EU regulatory landscape and offers a perspective on future developments in this legal field.

Josephine Norris is a member of the European Commission Legal Service and Adjunct Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.