LABOUR STANDARDS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGULATION – A NEW ERA OF ENFORCEMENT?

2021 ◽  
Vol specjalny II (XXI) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Joanna Gomula ◽  
James T. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
New Era ◽  
Trade Regulation ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Labour Standards

Although the ILO has been in existence for over a century, it is not equipped with international mechanisms for enforcement of the labour standards that it promotes. Globalization and trade liberalization have exposed a strong relationship between labour rights and trade regulation, leading to attempts to regulate labour provisions in a trade context, initially through the WTO and, more recently, through labour clauses in bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs). This contribution provides a historical overview of these attempts and presents most recent developments, which reflect a new policy of the United States and the European Union to use their FTAs as a stronger instrument of labour standards enforcement.

Stocktaking and Glimpsing at Trade Law's Next Generation

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 92-95
Author(s):  
Kathleen Claussen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Trade Law

These remarks are derived from a forthcoming work considering the future of international trade law. Compared with most features of the international legal system, the regional and bilateral trade law system is in the early stages of its evolution. For example, the United States is a party to fourteen free trade agreements currently in force, all but two of which have entered into force since 2000. The recent proliferation of agreements, particularly bilateral and regional agreements, is not unique to the United States. The European Union recently concluded trade agreement negotiations with Canada, Singapore, and Vietnam to add to its twenty-seven agreements in force and is negotiating approximately ten additional bilateral or multilateral agreements. In the Asia-Pacific Region, the number of regional and bilateral free trade agreements has grown exponentially since the conclusion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area of 1992. At that time, the region counted five such agreements in force. Today, the number totals 140 with another seventy-nine under negotiation or awaiting entry into force. The People's Republic of China is negotiating half a dozen bilateral trade agreements at present to top off the sixteen already in effect. India likewise is engaged in at least ten trade agreement negotiations. The World Trade Organization (WTO) reports 267 agreements of this sort in force among its members as of July 1, 2016.

Reforms of Korea's Trade Adjustment Assistance Program for Its Bilateral Free Trade Agreements with the European Union and the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inkyo Cheong ◽  
Jungran Cho
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Trade Adjustment Assistance ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Trade Adjustment

The Korean government introduced the trade adjustment assistance (TAA) program to facilitate structural adjustment under the implementation of its free trade agreements (FTAs). One big problem with the TAA program is that its criterion for eligibility for TAA support requires a 25 percent decrease in sales volume, and this does not reflect firms' business realities. The TAA program should be reformed to reflect that the TAA is a quid pro quo for the implementation of FTAs with large economies such as the United States and the EU.

scholarly journals El tema laboral en las negociaciones de los TLC: Lecciones de las experiencias de Colombia frente a los TLC con los Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea

2016 ◽  
pp. 205-244
Author(s):  
Daniel Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
The European Union

Los dos tratados de libre comercio firmados por Colombia con los Estados Unidos (2012) y Perú y la Unión Europea (2013) no solo marcaron el eje central de la política de apertura e integración económica de los gobiernos de Álvaro Uribe y Juan Manuel Santos, sino también pusieron a prueba la capacidad del Gobierno estadounidense y las instituciones de la Unión Europea para asegurar que sus políticas comerciales hacia países del Sur, como Colombia, pudieran mejorar las precarias condiciones laborales de gran parte de la población trabajadora y la capacidad estatal para proteger y garantizar los derechos laborales fundamentales y demás derechos sociales. Este artículo analiza las diferencias en ambos modelos de negociar temas laborales y compara el grado de impactos sociales positivos que ambos TLC han traído a Colombia varios años después de su implementación.Palabras clave: Tratados de libre comercio, acuerdos laborales paralelos, derechos laborales fundamentales, plan de acción laboral, Resolución 2628. Abstract The Labor Issue in FTA Negotiations: Lessons from Colombia’s Experiences with FTAs with the United States and the European Union Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed by Colombia with the United States (2012) and Peru and the European Union (2013) not only marked the central axis of the economic liberalization and integration policy of Alvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos governments, but they also put to test the ability of the US government and the EU institutions to ensure that their commercial policies with countries of the South, such as Colombia, would improve the precarious working conditions of a considerable part of the working population. Furthermore, they also challenge the capacity of the Colombian state to protect and guarantee fundamental labor rights and other social rights. This article examines the differences between both models of negotiating labor issues and compares the degree to which both FTAs have actually brought about positive social impact in Colombia a few years after their formal implementation.Key words: Free Trade Agreements, Parallel Labor Agreements, Fundamental Labor Rights, Labor Action Plan, Resolution 2628.

Measuring the Welfare Effects of Country of Origin Rules: A Suggested Methodology

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1850188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Pelzman ◽  
Amir Shoham
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trade Flows ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Rules Of Origin ◽  
Suggested Approach ◽  
Transformation Rules ◽  
The Impact

The United States and the European Union have generated dozens of bilateral Regional Trading Agreements (RTA) across the globe. All of these trading arrangements have detailed agreements on rules of origin (ROOs). Those rules are required in order to ensure that the perceived benefits of the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) are not subverted or deflected. These rules have their greatest impact on a firm's cost structure when applied to the trade of intermediate goods. Determination of the origin of final goods becomes more complicated where imported intermediates are used and the WTO 'substantial transformation' rules are implemented. There is relatively little literature on the impact of these rules of origin on trade. (Cadot et al., 2006; Duttagupta and Panagariya, 2002; and Falvey and Reed, 1998, 2002). The existing literature hypothesizes that these rules can easily be used to restrict or suppress trade between countries, or to divert trade away from more efficient suppliers to less efficient ones. The empirical evidence to support the trade distortions is based on the number and complexity of the rules of origin. In order to determine the degree to which the post-RTA trade flows are indeed affected by ROO requires a micro-based review of increased transaction costs, rather than the number of rules. The intent of this paper is to suggest a formal methodology, which relies on the literature about tariff-equivalents, to evaluate rules of origin requirements. The suggested approach, applied at the 5-digit HS level will provide a more robust evaluation of ROOs. The suggested methodology could also be used to investigate the oft-asserted hypothesis that with time and reduced tariff barriers, the costs associated with ROOs will diminish.

Modeling the Impacts of Free Trade Agreements on Domestic Transportation Gateways, Corridors, and Ports

2017 ◽  
Vol 2611 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Bachmann
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Government

Canada has recently made progress with several free trade agreements (FTAs), and although the government has carried out considerable analysis of their potential impact on the Canadian economy, little to no work has been done to assess the potential impact on Canada's transportation system. The objective of the research was to estimate the impacts of recent and forthcoming FTAs on Canada's domestic trade infrastructure. This study extended a typical computable general equilibrium simulation of an FTA by estimating high-level domestic supply chain characteristics (i.e., subnational region of origin or destination, sub-national region of exit or entry, international transportation mode, port of clearance) and by converting the resulting trade flows to freight flows measured in tonnage. The results indicate that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) may have had large impacts on Canada's Continental and Atlantic Gateways, especially at the Port of Montreal, Quebec, as a result of trade creation with the EU. CETA also has had impacts on various crossings at the U.S. border as a result of trade diversion with the United States. Simulations, however, suggested that the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement has had relatively small impacts, mostly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific Gateway, particularly at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia. Although the impacts were FTA-specific, this research demonstrated the need to consider FTAs in commodity forecasting and freight transportation planning, because they could make sizable changes to future freight flows on domestic transportation infrastructure.

scholarly journals Trade agreements and labour standards clauses: Explaining labour standards developments through a qualitative comparative analysis of US free trade agreements

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Giumelli ◽  
Gerda van Roozendaal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Standard Practices

Whereas a number of studies have been conducted to investigate causal relations between individual conditions (e.g. trade relations and labour standards), there is a lack of consensus among practitioners and scholars about the conditions that favour or cause labour standards improvements and, specifically, it is still unclear whether the increasing pervasiveness of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) is conducive to enhancing labour conditions. The aim of this study is to shed light on whether labour clauses in FTAs are conducive to better labour standard practices, whether the content of a clause makes a difference, and whether changes have anything to do with other (external) pressures that play a role in changing labour standards. The main argument of the article is that FTAs do not play a determinant role in improving labour standards in signatory states. The analysis is done by looking at 13 FTAs signed by the United States with 19 countries. The United States is chosen because of its relatively extensive collection of FTAs including different conditions on labour standards. The empirical dataset is analysed with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method, which permits to trace the combined effect of independent variables rather than to focus on the direct and individual causality with each of them.

scholarly journals Influence of the Regulatory Framework for Pharmaceuticals in Public Health. Analysis from Colombia's ratification of the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights Trade-Related (TRIPS) and the Free Trade Agreements with the United States and the European Union

Aquichan ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-127
Author(s):  
Fernando Augusto Jiménez-Valderrama ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union

Este artículo tiene por objetivo estudiar la relación entre la disponibilidad, los precios de los medicamentos y los intereses de salud pública. Para ello hemos utilizado una metodología de análisis de los intereses económicos implicados y también un método sistemático de tratamiento de la legislación nacional, comunitaria andina e internacional vigente. Igualmente hemos acudido a metodologías de derecho comparado entre nuestro ordenamiento jurídico nacional con los de otros países de mundo occidental. Existe un estrecho vínculo entre la disponibilidad y los precios de los medicamentos y los intereses de salud pública. Nuestro actual sistema legal reconoce a los inventores de nuevos medicamentos como un “monopolio” para negociar en el mercado farmacéutico. Para proteger los intereses públicos nuestra regulación establece algunos límites a los derechos de los inventores. Los derechos de propiedad se limitan en el tiempo y bajo algunas circunstancias es obligatorio autorizar a otros a usar la patente bajo un contrato de licenciamiento. La Organización Mundial del Comercio ha establecido (Decisión del Consejo de la OMC, Ronda Doha 2003) otros límites a estos derechos en caso de condiciones excepcionales. Nuestra Constitución Nacional otorga prevalencia a los intereses públicos sobre los privados. Es un deber de los gobiernos establecer un sistema justo en el cual los inventores puedan obtener una recompensa económica por sus creaciones y la sociedad pueda satisfacer sus necesidades de salud.

scholarly journals A critique of the extraterritorial obligations of the EU in relation to human rights clauses and social norms in EU free trade agreements

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clair Gammage
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
The Eu

This article examines the nature of the EU’s obligations in relation to human rights and social norms in its free trade agreements (FTAs) with a view to problematising the extent to which such clauses are justiciable and enforceable. While human rights do not fall within the area of exclusive EU competence, it is widely accepted that the EU may be liable for contributing to human rights violations in the context of trade agreements under international law and EU law. Conversely, it will be shown that social norms, including labour standards and principles such as sustainable development and environmental protection, which are increasingly set out in the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters of FTAs, raise more complex questions regarding the territorial reach of EU law. It is submitted that EU FTAs are constructed in such a way as to exclude rights with the effect that the extraterritorial obligations of the EU in relation to human rights clauses and social norms are unlikely to be judicially enforceable in practice. However, in spite of the territorial limitations of EU law in relation to human rights clause and social norms, recent developments in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) suggest that the EU is nevertheless under an obligation to ensure its trade agreements with developing countries are conducted in a ‘development-friendly’ manner. To conclude, this article advances the argument that the obligation to engage in ‘development-friendly’ trade may serve to extend the territorial reach of EU further, albeit within the confines of trade and cooperation agreements.

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