ABSTRACT
Labour and social issues are among the least examined aspects of North American integration processes. They are making their presence increasingly felt, however, whenever trade agreements are negotiated, especially those in which the United States is the driving force. More than 15 recent trade agreements, be they arrangements under the Generalized System of Preferences, bilateral agreements or free trade areas, incorporate or augment the labour component. Examples may be found in the Caribbean Basin Initiative (strengthened in 2000 to augment the previous requirements in terms of respect for fundamental labour rights), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Mexico, the United States and Canada in 1994, the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement signed in 2003 and the 2004 Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). They all make access to United States markets contingent on the undertaking to uphold basic, internationally recognized labour rights (the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work), and some include additional rights and compliance with national legislation (DiCaprio 2005). Likewise, institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the ILO have been actively promoting policies aimed at improving such arrangements and the performance of the bodies in charge of their implementation in the countries concerned⎯especially the least developed countries, such as those in Central America⎯with a view to enabling them to meet their pledges under the agreements (IDB Working Group 2005). Major measures of labour law reform that appeared favourable to workers and trade unions were introduced in those countries starting in the 1990s, often with the support provided by American unions and labour organizations to their Latin American counterparts; access to the United States market was made conditional on their implementation (Murillo & Schrank 2005: 971).
