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Can labour provisions work beyond the border? Evaluating the effects of EU free trade agreements
Author(s) -
CAMPLING Liam,
HARRISON James,
RICHARDSON Ben,
SMITH Adrian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international labour review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.433
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1564-913X
pISSN - 0020-7780
DOI - 10.1111/j.1564-913x.2015.00037.x
Subject(s) - european union , negotiation , free trade , context (archaeology) , work (physics) , international trade , international economics , economics , linkage (software) , trade union , business , labour economics , political science , engineering , law , mechanical engineering , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , biology
The European Union (EU) has concluded close to 50 bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), with around 10 more under negotiation. EU FTAs now include “trade and sustainable development” chapters, which contain labour provisions based on a “promotional” rather than “conditional” approach. In the context of the debate on the purpose and efficacy of the trade–labour linkage, the authors examine the possibilities and limitations of these provisions, drawing attention to the lack of research on their effect “on the ground”. To bridge this gap, they propose a new research agenda for evaluating the effects of labour provisions in EU FTAs.