ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the book. It presents the trade-labour linkage as a form of global labour governance that is now back on the political agenda. After the abandonment of the ‘social clause’ in the World Trade Organization, the use of trade policy to govern labour standards has moved instead into bilateral free trade agreements. In studying this phenomenon, there are good reasons to focus on labour provisions in the European Union’s trade agreements, not least the claim that they will help ensure that ‘trade works for all’. The chapter argues for the importance of new approaches to researching the effectiveness of these provisions, and the agreements in which they are contained. It also presents a series of wider debates on trade, labour, and global governance which the book will inform.
