Worker Rights And U S Trade Law

This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

"A significant contribution to current legal, political, and economic discourse on workers in the global economy."—International and Comparative Law Quarterly

On Tariffs and Trade

Comprehensive in scope, International Labor Law examines labor rights and labor standards in multilateral and regional institutions like the World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and European Union; regional and bilateral trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and more recent bilateral agreements with developing countries; the new labor-trade "template" in U.S. trade policy; and private initiatives like anti-sweatshop campaigns and corporate codes of conduct. Thematic chapters deal with labor rights lawsuits in U.S. courts, cross-border labor organizing and bargaining, migrant workers, women workers in the global economy, and child labor.

Protecting workers' rights is a top priority for the Obama Administration, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the Department of Labor (DOL) are leading the Administration's efforts to improve labor laws and working conditions with trading partners in virtually every region of the globe. These efforts are made in close coordination with other U.S. agencies and in collaboration with Congressional and other stakeholders, as well as international partners such as the International Labour Organization (ILO). This book discusses the Administration's efforts in a number of key countries--Guatemala, Colombia, Jordan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Swaziland, Haiti and Burma--in which USTR and DOL have had intensive engagement on labor issues in recent years. The book examines steps that selected partner countries have taken, and U.S. assistance they have received, to implement these provisions and other labor initiatives and the reported results of such steps; submissions regarding possible violations of FTA labor provisions that DOL has accepted and any problems related to the submission process; the extent to which U.S. agencies monitor and enforce implementation of FTA labor provisions and report results to Congress.

This paper reviews controversies regarding linkage of international trade and labor standards. Pressures for international harmonization of labor standards arise in the context of increased trade between countries with large disparities in wages, and also reflect the history of labor standards. A critical distinction is made between standards related to fundamental human rights and those related to employment conditions. The main conclusion is that trade sanctions to enforce labor standards should not be an option, but that international agreements on core labor standards, with voluntary compliance, may, apart from being worthwhile on ethical grounds, defuse calls for protection.

The book offers a comprehensive perspective on the highly topical issue of protecting and promoting labour standards in international economic law and the globalized economy. For the purpose of an in-depth analysis of both the specific and the fundamental aspects in this regard, it combines views from specialized academics of the legal and political sciences as well as experienced practitioners. The contributions to this book do not only reveal recurring obstacles but also point at best practices and potential for synergies, providing important guidance for future research and practice in international economic and labour law and policy.