Promoting labour rights in the global economy: Could the United States’ new model trade and investment frameworks advance international labour standards in Bangladesh?

Abstract

International free-trade or investment agreements offer great potential for improving labour standards. But that potential is far from realized. Compared with earlier models, the strengthened labour provisions of the United States’ recent trade agreement with the Republic of Korea mark a definite improvement, but the author questions their effectiveness, not least because the rights they purport to protect are specifically framed (somewhat loosely) in terms of the ILO Declaration of 1998 rather than the fundamental Conventions that underpin it. Enforcement mechanisms are also questionable. He considers what would need to be done to ensure that such agreements genuinely contribute to raising labour standards globally.