Linking International Trade and
Human Rights

Increased Trade Liberalization must protect basic labor standards

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights advances fair economic practices by promoting global safeguards for workers' rights. In the last decade the global expansion of the market economy has produced what some call a “world without walls”. In the rush to find cheaper and quicker ways to produce shoes, apparel, and other labor-intensive goods for the global marketplace, multinational corporations continue to move much of their manufacturing to countries without basic legal protections for workers and where union organizing is prohibited or discouraged. Factory workers drive the new international economy, yet millions of them daily endure substandard conditions of work ranging from inadequate wages to long hours to life-threatening hazards in the workplace. The export of agricultural products has also significantly increased over the last years. In many of the countries that export agricultural products, basic workers rights are not respected and child labor is a serious problem. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights believes that increased trade liberalization must be accompanied by measures to protect basic labor rights. The express protection of labor rights in the letter and the spirit of trade agreements is a first step in this direction.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights expects that free trade agreements must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Negotiations must be conducted in a transparent way.
• Only governments that comply with core labor standards should be invited to sign.
• Basic labor rights must be an integral part of the agreement.
• Enforcement mechanisms for labor rights must be equal to enforcement mechanisms for any other rights and obligations embodied in the agreement.
• Trade remedies should be applicable to labor standards.
• Labor rights must be enforceable in the entire territories of the signatory parties.
• A permanent labor standards monitoring body must be part of the agreement.