Theodore H. Moran, Gary Hufbauer. ""Labor Standards in Trade Agreements: A Bad Idea"." Financial Times 13 Mar. 2007: .
Senate and Hill Democrats, led by Sandy Levin, Charles Rangel, and Barry Frank, are insisting that ILO core labor standards be included as enforceable parts of upcoming trade agreements as part of a “Grand Bargain” to ensure both extension of Trade Promotion Authority (“fast track”) and ratification of specific agreements themselves.
But US labor laws are often inconsistent with ILO standards, or are highly problematic and open to challenge. US labor regulations are largely established at the state level, moreover. For the US to enter into trade agreement that can enforce ILO standards among the parties would subject US laws and practices to decisions of trade courts.
Whatever one thinks of the merits of such an outcome, the practical effect on the US political process – at the Congressional and state legislative level, among Democrats as well as Republican – would be to put an absolute end to further multilateral trade negotiations.
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