International Trade and Workers Rights

The debate surrounding workers’ rights in the global economy is increasingly heated and dogmatic, politicized, and divisive. Indeed, the recent election debates and executive orders to withdraw from trade commitments have highlighted divisions with respect to the manner and extent to which workers’ rights should be regulated in trade. What are international workers’ rights, how are they established, and what do they mean in theory and in practice? What tools are available to protect and promote them and how have these those tools been applied? When governments adopt policies that restrict trade to protect their workers, do they violate the principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO) jurisprudence? This course will provide an overview of the intersection of WTO and International Labor Organization (ILO) principles. Students will discuss the common issues confronting workers and governments in liberalized trade, while comparing the U.S. and E.U. approaches to incorporating the ILO’s labor standards in their trade agreements. Taking a closer look at U.S. trade developments, the course will examine the evolution and implementation of labor provisions in U.S. trade agreements, from NAFTA through the present, and the labor eligibility criteria in U.S. trade preference programs and their enforcement. The course will conclude with a critical examination of the various mechanisms to promote workers’ rights and the compatibility of that system with international economic law.