PROTECTING LABOR RIGHTS THROUGH TRADE AGREEMENTS: AN ANALYTICAL GUIDE (original) (raw)

Striking a proper match? Strategies to link trade agreements and real labor rights improvements

Executive Summary: Labour Global …

A growing number of nations including Canada, Chile, the EU, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the U.S., now include labor rights provisions in their free trade agreements. But we don't yet know if such links actually empower workers or lead to improved labor rights governance. Moreover, because each government takes a different approach to these agreements, policymakers may be sending confusing signals on how to promote labor rights; what labor rights are internationally accepted core labor rights; and how important these rights are to good governance.

Labour Provisions in US Free Trade Agreements : Determinants and Adequacy

the inclusion of labor-related provisions in US Free Trade Agreements has been a contentious issue. They have been attacked both for allegedly weakening the comparative advantage of developing and emerging countries; and for being too weak and inconsistent with the recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO). This paper proposes a method of assessing the reality of labor rights protection in U.S. FTAs Partnercountries and gives a more precise picture of the adequacy of Labor-related provisions in those FTAs given the situation of labor rights protection in U.S FTAs Partner-countries. In doing so, it provides also a careful and original methodology to evaluate the respect of ILO Conventions and build an Index of Labour Bargaining Power, both of these constructions can be reproduced in further research and used to monitor the evolution of Labour Rights in any given country. The United States has a long standing tradition of linking labor standards and trade, dating back to the McKinley Act of 1890 and the Trade Act of 1930 which respectively restricted then prohibited imports convict or prison-made goods i . However, the US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, signed on October 24 th , 2000 is the first U.S international trade agreement to include labor related provisions in the main body of the agreement ii . This practice has been followed since, in virtually every Free Trade Agreement negotiated and signed by the U.S with countries so diverse as Chile iii and Singapore iv (2003), Australia v , Bahrain vi , Costa Rica, Dominican republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua vii and Morocco viii (2004), Colombia ix , Oman x and Peru xi (2006); Korea xii and Panama xiii (2007).

International Trade Agreements and Their Relation to Core Labor Standards

Journal of Politics and Law, 2018

The research is an attempt to comprehend with these issues and enunciate an argument that international labor rights and labor standards are a pivotal component of international trade, investment, and development strategy for the well-being of the entire society not only for the wealthy nations. Section 1 of the paper lays out unanimity of labor rights and standards depicted from different sources with evoking instances showing real concerns that have originated with the development of new universal trade. Section 2 illustrates various forums where the international labor rights assertion perhaps induced, through a discourse of multiple supervision or enforcement mechanism available under such forums. Last part of the paper concludes the study and proposes future initiatives to labor rights advocates from all discussions and further recommends new allegiances to international fair labor rights and standards by government, employers, and trade unions entered into a global economy.

Making Free Trade More Fair: Developments In Protecting Labor Rights

Proceedings of the... …, 1997

[Excerpt] The IRRA-NAFTA Committee was first appointed in 1995 by then president, Walter Gershenfeld, to make a report to the membership on the industrial relations implications of NAFTA and other traderelated developments. The Committee's mandate was renewed in 1996 by president Hoyt Wheeler. In this year's report the committee focused on some of the attempts that are underway to improve protection of labor interests under free trade conditions. This is a summary of the longer full report available upon request from the IRRA National Office.

Trade and Labor Rights: A Panel Study, 1986-2002

T his article investigates the nature of the linkages between trade and labor rights in developing countries. Specifically, we hypothesize that a "California effect" serves to transmit superior labor standards from importing to exporting countries, in a manner similar to the transmission of environmental standards. We maintain that, all else being equal, the labor standards of a given country are influenced not by its overall level of trade openness, but by the labor standards of its trading partners. We evaluate our hypothesis using a panel of 90 developing countries over the period 1986-2002, and we separately examine the extent to which the labor laws and the actual labor practices of the countries are influenced by those of their export destinations. We find that strong legal protections of collective labor rights in a country's export destinations are associated with more stringent labor laws in the exporting country. This California effect finding is, however, weaker in the context of labor rights practices, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between formal legislation and actual implementation of labor rights.

Reality Bites: The Myth of Labor Rights as a Non-trade Issue

Working Papers, 2006

In 1999, economist Jagdish Bhagwati and 98 other prominent individuals from the developing world took a forceful position. Bhagwati, the world's preeminent trade economist, and his co-signatories argued that labor rights should not be linked to the WTO or to any other trade agreement. To these men and women, labor rights were non trade issues and should not be allowed to "contaminate" trade rules. 1 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as well as and trade officials from Thailand and the Philippines seconded this point of view. 2

Labour provisions in preferential trade agreements: Current practice and outlook

International Labour Review, 2013

In this research, we discuss the impacts of labour provisions in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to which Vietnam is a party in aspects of politics, institutions, law and economy. We find that the impacts are a mixture of both positives and negatives. Positive effects include a more and more developed and well-established domestic labour legal framework, stronger domestic political commitment to labour reforms, more stabilized political environment, higher level of labour protection, higher wages, better working conditions and better life, higher productivity and competitiveness of goods and services and more foreign direct investment. Negative effects include potential political risks of state sovereignty weakening, reduction in competitiveness because of rising labour costs and undermined trade and economic growth resulting from tradebased sanctions in labour disputes. Both positive effects and negative effects exist as possibilities and whether they are materialized and which of them outweighs depend on reactions taken by Vietnam. Proposals for Vietnam to benefit from labour commitments include improving the domestic labour law system and efficiency of state administration and enforcement of domestic labour law, changing the economy from factor-based to efficiency-based status, making relevant institutional reforms, introducing the trade-related labour topic into the academic setting, performing studies on the impacts of labour provisions in PTAs, set up strategies and tactics in PTAs' labour negotiations, joining forces with other trade partners of the same interest, effective exploitation of cooperation mechanisms in PTAs and proposing S&D treatment for developing countries.

Labour standards in international trade agreements: an assessment of the arguments

International Journal of Human Resource …, 1999

In the 1980s and 1990s organized labour in industrialized countries was hit by the demise of traditional manufacturing industries, the ever-expanding globalization of the economy and the ideological dominance of economic liberalism and free trade. Support for the introduction of labour standards in the world trade regime grew out of these conditions. This paper introduces an analytical framework for the study of labour standards in international trade agreements (LSITA) and provides a detailed examination of the individuals and organizations involved in the debate and an analysis of their arguments and activities. Experiences of LSITA fall into four categories: (i) unilateral: child and prison labour legislation and corporate codes of conduct; (ii) bilateral: the GSP programmes; (iii) multilateral: attempts in the GATT/WTO; and (iv) regional: the Social Charter of the EU and the labour side agreement of NAFTA.

Trade Agreements and Core Labour Standards

2016

Over the last two decades, a growing number of free trade agreements have included social and labour provisions. This Policy Brief investigates the repercussions of such clauses on the ratification of what are seen as fundamental ILO conventions and on workers" rights practices. An empirical estimation indicates that labour provisions have not played a significant role in improving labour practices, and that their effect has been limited to the ratification of ILO conventions. This gap highlights the importance of mechanisms that guarantee the enforceability of labour clauses included in trade agreements.