This chapter analyses the impact of free trade agreements on responsible business in Asian
emerging economies. We review the origins of the discussion on sustainable development in
international negotiations and conventions, and explore the EU’s three FTAs with Asian
countries, i.e. South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam with respect to references to corporate
social responsibility and sustainable development. Our main finding is the gradual evolution
of the EU’s FTAs towards including more explicit clauses on environmental and labour
issues. This conforms to the idea of multilateralizing regionalism, i.e. that issues may be first
agreed in bilateral or regional FTAs and then gradually transferred to the multilateral level.
Despite not incurring direct impacts on firms, this may serve as an institutional push for
countries to address the need for responsible business in national legislation.