Workers Rights in Jordan

The U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, signed on October 24, 2000, is the first in U.S. history to directly include enforceable labor and environmental standards in the body of a trade treaty. The new agreement emphasizes commitments binding both countries to abide by their own existing laws guaranteeing workers’ rights and environmental standards and confirms that free trade and workers rights must go hand in hand. By reconciling labor standards with free trade - concepts that traditionally have been viewed as mutually exclusive - the U.S.-Jordan agreement offers a new model for free-trade pacts.

While an important stride forward, however, the agreement is merely the first step to raising the bar on labor conditions. The pact only requires the U.S. and Jordan to apply their existing national laws and uses as its base, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. As member states of the ILO, both countries are already bound by the Declaration, which includes the right of workers to form unions and collectively bargain, as well as a ban on child labor.