Labor clauses in regional trade agreements and effects on labor conditions : an empirical analysis

An increasing number of bilateral or plurilateral trade agreements (or regional trade agreements: RTAs) include "labor clauses" that require or urge the signatory countries to commit to maintaining a certain level of labor standards. This paper performs an empirical analysis of the impacts of such labor clauses provided in RTAs on working conditions that laborers in the RTA signatory countries actually face, using macro-level data for a wide variety of countries. The paper first examines the texts of labor provisions in more than 220 effective RTAs and (re-)classifies "RTAs with labor clauses" according to two criteria: (i) the agreement urges or expects the signatory countries to harmonize their domestic labor standards with internationally recognized standards, and (ii) the agreement stipulates the procedures for consultations and/or dispute settlement on labor-condition issues between the signatory countries. Based on this labor-clause RTA classification, the paper estimates the impacts of RTA labor clauses on working conditions in countries with two empirical specifications using the sample covering 136 countries or economies and years from 1995 through 2011. The estimation is extended to takes into account possible lags in the labor-condition effects of labor clauses as well as to consider potential difference in the impacts for countries in different income levels. The empirical results for the four measures of labor conditions (mean monthly real earnings, mean weekly work hours per employee, fatal occupational injury rate, and the number of the ILO's Core Conventions ratified) find no evidence for possible pro-labor-condition effects of RTA labor clauses overall, which should be consistent with the view of economics literature that questions the relevance of linking trade policy with issues in the domestic labor standards.

Reciprocal trade agreements program : hearings before the Committee on ways and means, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session : on the operation of the Trade agreements act and the proposed International trade organization.

No more published?

Cantaloups; report on escape-clause investigation no. 7-98, under the provisions of section 7 of the Trade agreements extension act of 1951, as amended.

Mode of access: Internet.

Violins and violas; report to the President on escape-clause investigation no. 55 under the provisions of section 7 of the Trade agreements extension act of 1951, as amended.

Mode of access: Internet.

The trade-agreements program benefits the dairy industry.

Mode of access: Internet.

Operation of the trade agreements program.

Vols. for 1974- issued as its ITC publication.

The Tokyo Round trade agreements.

Vol. 1 prepared by Andrew L. Stoler.

The Year in trade : operation of the trade agreements program /

Mode of access: Internet.

Feeds and fodders and reciprocal trade agreements.

Reproduced from type-written copy.

Hogs and hog products and reciprocal trade agreements.

Reproduced from type-written copy.

Inquiry into purported trade agreement with Cuba and procedure in negotiating trade agreements : hearing ... Seventy-sixth Congress, first session, on S. Res. 49, a resolution for an inquiry concerning a purported trade agreement with Cuba, and the sufficiency of the procedure in negotiating such agreements under law, January 13, 1939.

Mode of access: Internet.

Extension of Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act : hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, first session, on H.R. 1211, an Act to extend the authority of the President under Section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes.

Hearings held Feb. 17 to Mar. 10, 1960.

Trade agreements extension act of 1951. Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Eighty-second Congress, first session, on H. R. 1612, an act to extend the authority of the President to enter into trade agreements under section 350 of the Tariff act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes.

Hearings held Feb. 22-Apr. 6, 1951.

Trade agreements extension : hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, first session, on H.R. 1, an act to extend the authority of the President to enter into trade agreements under section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes.

"Index by general categories, pts. 1-4" issued seperately.

Trade Expansion Act of 1962 : hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Eighty-seventh Congress, second session, on H.R. 11970, an act to promote the general welfare, foreign policy, and security of the United States through international trade agreements and through adjustment assistance to domestic industry, agriculture, and labor, and for other purposes.

Hearings held July 23-August 16, 1962