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Trade and Labor

29 posts

The Labor Provisions in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

The EU has published a number of parts of the text of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) here. The "Investment and Sustainable Development" section is here. This is the substantive language on labor rights: Sub-Section 3 – Investment and Labour Article 1: Right to regulate

The U.S. Rebuttal Submission in the CAFTA Labor Case: In a Manner Affecting Trade

The U.S. - Guatemala CAFTA labor case is heating up. I'm going to raise the "in a manner affecting trade" issue once again. Recall that CAFTA Article 16.2.1(a) says: A Party shall not fail to effectively enforce its labor laws, through a sustained

The CAFTA Labor Dispute: Guatemala's Submission

USTR has posted Guatemala's first written submission in the labor complaint the U.S. brought against Guatemala. (Thanks to Ryan Rainey of Inside US Trade for the tip). There are some interesting issues in there. I'll mention a couple. Role of precedent from other areas of

The CAFTA Labor Complaint Against Guatemala

The U.S. complaint against Guatemala for failure to enforce labor laws -- mentioned here -- seems to be going forward. The first U.S. written submission is now online here. Here's an excerpt: 2. This submission demonstrates that Guatemala has breached its obligation under Article 16.2.1(a)

The First Labor Complaint Under a Trade Agreement

From a speech today by USTR Ron Kirk: So today I am announcing that the Obama Administration will file a case against Guatemala under our trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, for apparent violations of obligations on labor rights. This is the first labor case the United

In Defense of Child Labor

From economist Steven Landsburg: As any historian could tell you, no society has every pulled itself out of poverty without putting its children to work. Back in the early 19th century, when Americans were as poor as Bangladeshis are now, we were sending out children to work at about the

Labor Rules in Trade Agreements: Child Labor

A reader points me to the following from the Progressive Policy Institute: The ILO's 'core' labor standard on child labor is set out in ILO Convention #138 on Minimum Working Age. Dating to 1973, the Convention reads as follows: "The minimum age ... shall not be

Some Questions about Labor/Environment Provisions in Trade Agreements

This Presidential campaign has made it very clear that there are a number of people (mostly Democrats, I would guess), including the two remaining Democratic Presidential candidates, whose support for trade agreements is conditional on having enforceable labor and environmental rules as part of these agreements. This view raises a

How Important Are Labor/Environmental Standards in Trade Agreements?

As noted many times on this blog, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been making a big deal of the absence of enforceable labor/environmental standards in certain trade agreements, such as NAFTA. But how important would these really be? Dan Drezner gives the following answer: Repeat after me: attaching