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

Abstract

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.