The debate over whether international trade and observance and respect for certain labour rights should be linked is an old one. In fact, it dates back to the very first attempts to establish international labour regulations in the nineteenth century. More recently, over the past few decades, some of the parties to the debate over the enforcement of workers’ rights through trade agreements seemed to assume that this approach would restrict such agreements in ways that would have a negative impact on the liberalization of world trade. But it has also been argued that minimum protection for workers are policies that directly help alleviate poverty and produce more equitable income distribution. Which explains why today’s trade agreements are increasingly seen to include provisions for respect of labour rights, which have thus become an integral part of trade negotiations with the aim of making the globalization process fairer by extending its benefits. The debate now appears to be focused on which mechanisms and procedures could prove most efficient in attaining this goal.

In fact, the need to create a minimum social foundation for the development of trade – one that guarantees certain safeguards against social dumping – has inevitably resulted in the signing of an increasing number of free trade agreements (FTAs) which include a labour dimension, either in the agreement itself or in a parallel agreement. Typically, not only do such labour clauses list minimum commitments for the protection of human rights at work, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, but they also provide for conflict resolution systems, funds and parallel labour cooperation, and financial penalties. Indeed, a growing number of bilateral trade cooperation agreements – particularly those signed by Canada, the United States and the European Union – contain social and labour provisions along those lines.

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