Working Beyond the Border: European Union Trade Agreements and International Labour Standards

最近发生的备受瞩目的事件，如孟加拉国拉纳广场大楼倒塌事件，表明需要在全球范围内更好地保护和加强工人的权利。国际贸易协定中的可持续发展条款提供了一个重要的机制，欧盟等主要贸易集团正试图通过这种机制来实现这一点。这个项目调查了欧盟改善境外劳工标准的这一承诺。欧盟承诺“在双边和多边贸易谈判中，把更多的商业力量投入到促进社会标准和体面工作的努力中”，这一承诺在“新一代”自由贸易协定(FTA)所包含的劳工标准条款中得到了鼓吹，称其是促进第三国劳工标准的关键政策机制。该项目调查了这些新的自贸协定对第三国工人的影响。自2011年与韩国的自由贸易协定以来，所有新的欧盟自贸协定都有一个专门的章节，涉及“贸易和可持续发展”，并承诺尊重核心劳工标准(结社自由、消除强迫劳动和废除童工)。它们还包括监督和审查这些标准遵守情况的体制机制，包括由协定双方代表组成的联合委员会、处理投诉的独立专家机构以及民间社会审查机制。这一模式新颖、创新。这不是一种使用制裁来迫使合规的“硬性法律”机制。它也不是一个“软”的法律机制(如公平贸易)，因为各州正在承诺采取行动，并对它们的表现进行监测和审查。因此，研究现有的劳工标准保护机制，无助于理解欧盟新模式的有效性。目前也没有研究直接调查这种新模式对与欧盟签署了新一代自由贸易协定的国家的工人的影响；国际机构指出，这一点是不存在的。因此，这一研究项目填补了这一重要空白。我们将研究最近与欧盟签署此类协议的三个国家(韩国、摩尔多瓦和圭亚那)，以调查：(1)每个协议的谈判进程，以及这些进程是否有助于每个国家的国内联盟推动更好地保护劳工标准；(2)贸易协议建立的体制机制发生了什么情况，以及关键劳工标准问题被提出和处理的程度；(3)每个国家的关键出口部门(分别是汽车、服装和糖)，以审查贸易协定中的谈判进程和体制机制对第三国工厂和领域的影响；对该项目至关重要的是，认识到自贸协定中的劳工标准条款可能对第三国工人的生活产生非常不同的影响，这取决于一些因素，包括：(1)每个贸易伙伴的力量有多大，以及这如何影响欧盟影响其政策和做法的能力；(2)执行每项协定的地缘政治背景(自由贸易协定(韩国)、更广泛的经济伙伴关系协定的一部分(圭亚那)或作为更深入的经济一体化的一部分(摩尔多瓦)；以及(3)不同的经济部门如何受到影响，因此我们的研究将着眼于三个不同的行业：资本密集型制造业(汽车)；对这种“新一代”模式的评估将成为重要的证据来源，为欧盟委员会、国际劳工组织和工会/非政府组织等国际组织在FTA实施和谈判方面的工作提供信息。

Recent high profile incidents such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza Building in Bangladesh demonstrate the need for workers' rights to be better protected and enhanced across the globe. Sustainable development clauses in international trade agreements provide one important mechanism by which major trading blocs, such as the European Union, are attempting to do this.This project investigates this commitment of the EU to improve labour standards beyond its borders. It focuses on the EU pledge "to put more of its commercial weight behind efforts to promote social standards and decent work in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations", which has been trumpeted in the labour standards provisions contained in "new generation" free trade agreements (FTAs) as a key policy mechanism for promoting labour standards in third countries. This project investigates the impact of these new FTAs on workers in third countries.Since the 2011 free trade agreement with South Korea, all new EU FTAs contain a specific chapter on 'Trade and Sustainable Development', with commitments to respect core labour standards (freedom of association, eliminating forced labour and abolishing child labour). They also contain institutional mechanisms to monitor and review compliance with those standards including a joint committee of representatives of the two parties to the agreement, an independent body of experts to handle complaints, and a civil society review mechanism. This model is novel and innovative. It is not a 'hard law' mechanism where sanctions are used to force compliance. Nor is it a 'soft' law mechanism (like Fair Trade) because states are making commitments to take action, and their performance is monitored and reviewed. Consequently, research into existing mechanisms for protecting labour standards is not helpful in understanding how effective the EU's new model is. There is also no existing research which directly investigates what the impact of this new model is on workers in countries that have signed a 'new generation' FTA with the EU; an absence noted by international agencies. This research project therefore fills this important gap.We will examine three countries that have recently signed such agreements with the EU (South Korea, Moldova and Guyana), to investigate: (1) the negotiating process for each agreement, and whether these processes have helped domestic coalitions in each country to push for better protection of labour standards; (2) what is happening in the institutional mechanisms created by the trade agreements and the extent to which key labour standards issues are raised and dealt with; (3) key export sectors in each country (automobiles, clothing and sugar respectively) to examine what the impact of the negotiating processes and institutional mechanisms in the trade agreements are in the factories and fields of third countries; Vitally important to this project is the recognition that labour standards provisions in FTAs may have very different effects on workers' lives in third countries depending on a number of factors, including:(1) How powerful each trading partner is and how this effects the EU's ability to influence its policies and practices;(2) The geo-political context in which each agreement is implemented (a free standing trade agreement (South Korea), part of a wider economic partnership agreement (Guyana), or as part of much deeper economic integration (Moldova); and(3) How different economic sectors are affected, hence our research will look at three different industries; capital-intensive manufacturing (automobiles); labour-intensive manufacturing (clothing) and agricultural production and processing (sugar).Evaluation of this 'new generation' model will be a vital source of evidence to inform the work of international organisations such as the European Commission, the ILO, and trade union/NGO groups over FTA implementation and negotiations.