Worker Rights Provisions and Trade Policy: Should They Be Linked? Page: 4 of 22
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Worker Rights Provisions and Trade Policy:
Should They Be Linked?
Should promotion of worker rights around the world be linked to trade policy?
That is, should the United States encourage its trading partners to grant their workers
some basic level of worker protections or labor standards in return for the opportunity
to trade with the United States? Should the United States also issue penalties, if
trading partners do not adhere to basic worker rights? The Congress has grappled
with these questions for more than a decade.
The worker rights question has arisen again most recently as Congress examines
the issue of U.S. importation of goods produced by child labor. It is also expected
to arise as Congress debates proposals that would either allow or, conversely,
prohibit worker rights provisions in "fast-track" renewal legislation: legislation that
would renew Presidential authority to negotiate trade agreements on afast-track basis
- with mandatory deadlines, limited debates, and no amendments by Congress.1
Previous fast-track authority expired April 16, 1994.
The linking of worker rights and trade policy around the world is in an early
stage of development. The United States has unilaterally required some trading
partners to adhere to a basic set of internationally recognized worker rights since the
1980s. In addition, the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) required signatories to adhere to their own worker rights laws.
However, members of the new World Trade Organization (WTO) are not bound by
such requirements. The United States is pushing for a discussion of the worker-rights
trade policy link at the WTO Singapore Ministerial Conference scheduled for
December 1996.
While there is no consensus on what constitutes worker rights, the term has a
number of definitions. For example, the 1984 amendments to the Generalized System
of Preferences (GSP)2 defined internationally recognized worker rights to include:
(a) the right of association;
(b) the right to organize and bargain collectively;
(c) a prohibition on the use of any form of forced or compulsory labor;
(d) a minimum age for the employment of children; and
(e) acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of
work, and occupational safety and health.
For more information on the fast-track issue, see U.S. Library of Congress. Congressional
Research Service. Fast Track Authority: Negotiating Objectives for Multilateral and
Preferential Trade Agreements, by George D. Holliday. CRS Report 95-904. Washington,
August 14, 1995. 21 p.
2 Section 503 of P.L. 98-573, added provisions to Section 502(a)(4) of the Trade Act of 1974.
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Worker Rights Provisions and Trade Policy: Should They Be Linked?, report, July 30, 1996; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc808844/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.