ABSTRACT
Trade agreements that regulate international trade between two or more countries have the potential to improve the working conditions by requiring worker protections as a condition of the agreement. These protections could be strengthened if the participating countries were required to have labor standards that reinforced basic human rights. The Workplace Safety and Health Institute estimated that there were 2.78 million work-related deaths globally in 2017. Of these deaths, 380,500 were attributed to occupational accidents, and the remaining 2.4 million were attributed to occupational disease. Many of the deaths occurred in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, where the safety and health regulations are not as strong and/or enforcement of those that do exist is lacking. Without these regulations in place, the countries that don’t protect their workers have an unfair trade advantage and put their workers are at increased risk of occupational injuries, illnesses, and death. This chapter explores how some existing trade agreements have addressed the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) eight essential core standards, considered by the ILO to be the “fundamental” human rights, and where gaps in such protections still exist. The eight essential core standards include freedom of association the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective abolition of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination with respect to employment and occupation.
