Europe's leaders must devise a global trading system that puts the poor first | Ruth Bergan

The EU's professed commitment to sustainable development is not reflected in its proposed text for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Last week, the EU made public its initial proposal for legal text on trade and sustainable development in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The EU has a longstanding commitment to policy coherence for development, making sure its trade and other policies don't have a negative impact on international development goals. Yet the EU's proposal for TTIP says virtually nothing about ensuring that the world's biggest trade deal does not have a negative impact on developing countries.

Clearly, the EU doesn't believe that a chapter on sustainable development need make more than passing reference to international development. Just one sentence is allocated to the implications for developing countries of a trade deal that both the EU and US want to use as a blueprint for future multilateral deals.