scholarly journals Reimagining Trade Agreements for Workers: Lessons from the USMCA

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 407-412
Author(s):  
Álvaro Santos

A backlash against the post-Cold War order of liberal globalization has taken hold in the rich North Atlantic countries. Concerns about wages, working conditions, and economic opportunity are central to the critique of international trade agreements of the last three decades. While labor rights have progressively been included in trade agreements, they have done little to reshape workers’ well-being and workplace conditions. The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) may signal a pivot to a new model requiring reforms of domestic labor law and other issues important to workers. However, there is much more to be done to rebalance the power between capital and labor in trade agreements. In addition, for the United States and other rich countries, reform at home may be equally important.

Significance The government will appeal the rulings, which follow action by renewables firms. With constitutional battles over energy investments already unfolding, the future of Mexico’s energy framework has been thrown into turmoil. Impacts Increasing energy prices will probably push inflation above Banxico’s upper target limit of 4%. AMLO’s apparent disregard for international trade agreements will strain relations with the United States. AMLO’s pro-austerity fiscal stance could take a toll on his popularity.


Author(s):  
H. Scott Fairley

SummaryThe author argues that the Helms-Burton Act violates general principles of international law. The analysis begins with a brief discussion of the extraterritorial purposes, structure, and operation of the act, followed by a survey of international responses to Helms-Burton by the principal trading partners of the United States: diplomatic protest, formalized dispute settlement under international trade agreements, retaliatory blocking leghlation, and multi-hteral scrutiny in and by international institutions. The author then turns to principles of jurisdiction with a view to demonstrating that Helms-Burton does not meet the applicable thresholds to support either the private right to sue for trafficking in confiscated property under Title III of the act or the governmental exclusion of designated aliens from admission to the United States under Title IV. In this regard, substantive international law arguments in relation to extraterritoriality and nationality, remoteness, the effects doctrine, human rights, and the reasonable expectations of other nations are also considered.


2016 ◽  
pp. 205-244
Author(s):  
Daniel Hawkins

Los dos tratados de libre comercio firmados por Colombia con los Estados Unidos (2012) y Perú y la Unión Europea (2013) no solo marcaron el eje central de la política de apertura e integración económica de los gobiernos de Álvaro Uribe y Juan Manuel Santos, sino también pusieron a prueba la capacidad del Gobierno estadounidense y las instituciones de la Unión Europea para asegurar que sus políticas comerciales hacia países del Sur, como Colombia, pudieran mejorar las precarias condiciones laborales de gran parte de la población trabajadora y la capacidad estatal para proteger y garantizar los derechos laborales fundamentales y demás derechos sociales. Este artículo analiza las diferencias en ambos modelos de negociar temas laborales y compara el grado de impactos sociales positivos que ambos TLC han traído a Colombia varios años después de su implementación.Palabras clave: Tratados de libre comercio, acuerdos laborales paralelos, derechos laborales fundamentales, plan de acción laboral, Resolución 2628. Abstract The Labor Issue in FTA Negotiations: Lessons from Colombia’s Experiences with FTAs with the United States and the European Union Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed by Colombia with the United States (2012) and Peru and the European Union (2013) not only marked the central axis of the economic liberalization and integration policy of Alvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos governments, but they also put to test the ability of the US government and the EU institutions to ensure that their commercial policies with countries of the South, such as Colombia, would improve the precarious working conditions of a considerable part of the working population. Furthermore, they also challenge the capacity of the Colombian state to protect and guarantee fundamental labor rights and other social rights. This article examines the differences between both models of negotiating labor issues and compares the degree to which both FTAs have actually brought about positive social impact in Colombia a few years after their formal implementation.Key words: Free Trade Agreements, Parallel Labor Agreements, Fundamental Labor Rights, Labor Action Plan, Resolution 2628.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 680-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Ortino ◽  
Emily Lydgate

Abstract The number of international agreements purporting to liberalise trade, mainly focused on reducing protectionist measures through the imposition of general principles, has increased greatly over the last 25 years. More recently, the United States and the European Union (EU) concluded comprehensive agreements covering trade in goods, trade in services, and foreign investment. This article inquires whether, and the extent to which, such agreements represent a departure from previous practice. It focuses on (a) the instruments employed to address domestic regulation affecting trade in services and (b) three specific agreements concluded between 2016 and 2018: the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. While these recent Preferential Trade Agreements put forward novel approaches to regulatory diversity affecting trade in services, it is too early to ascertain whether these will have any ground-breaking impact in terms of services trade liberalisation.


Author(s):  
Carol Graham

This chapter goes on to ask who still believes in the American Dream. It begins with a review of what we know about the relationship between inequality, well-being, and attitudes about future mobility. It summarizes what we know from survey data on attitudes about inequality and opportunity in the United States, and then places those attitudes in the context of those in other countries and regions, based on new data and analysis with a focus on individuals' beliefs in the role of hard work in future success. Evidence suggests that the American Dream is very unevenly shared across socioeconomic cohorts. The poor and the rich in the United States lead very different lives, with the former having a much harder time looking beyond day-to-day struggles and associated high levels of stress, while the latter is able to pursue much better futures for themselves and their children, with the gaps between the two likely to increase even more in the future.


2019 ◽  
pp. 289-311
Author(s):  
Iain Osgood

The scope of trade agreements has grown and changed dramatically over the past two decades, especially in the areas of investment and regulation. While the substance of these changes has received much attention, the links between them and producers’ political activities require more systematic investigation. I take two steps toward this goal, using the case of US corporate lobbying on TPP to illustrate. I first document the rich array of political activities undertaken by corporate America in support of the agreement, and the broad set of concerns discussed by firms and associations. I then show that interests in sales, sourcing, and regulation all explain corporate support for TPP. These findings contradict a skeptical view that trade agreements serve only a select set of large multinationals focused on a narrow set of interests, primarily to erode state sovereignty. Instead, support for these agreements is extensive, multi-faceted, and highly heterogeneous across firms, and oriented toward solving a multiplicity of distinct problems in international relations. Although the United States withdrew from TPP and, at least for the time being, does not intend to join TPP11, this case study is nonetheless relevant in demonstrating the various motivations behind US corporate input into trade agreements beyond TPP. Moreover, corporate America’s imprint on many provisions of TPP12 can still be seen in TPP11.


Author(s):  
M S S El Namaki

Disruption induces disequilibrium. Today’s global economy is the case in point. Powerful sources of disruption are undermining classic premises of global economic equilibrium and, in the process, changing the contours of the World economy. Long cherished globalization premises of free market,   open economy,   small government, private initiative and deregulation are being challenged. Sources of this challenge are numerous but the most striking is the recent rapid and abrupt USA reclusive and isolationist measures.  The United States, the key global economic player, is assuming a protective posture by introducing tariff barriers, annulling international trade agreements, promoting self-serving job creation slogans and hastily recalling industries and services.  And all this is uttering threats of crude retaliation.  National interest seems to have taken precedence over cross country gains. And others seem to be working on a new framework:  globalization minus one. A globalization that is based on new premises and involves the majority of global economic players but one:  the United States. This will be the focus of the following article.


Author(s):  
Kyung-Bok Son

Abstracts Objectives Recent international trade agreements require member countries a prolonged statutory exclusivity for biologics, and domestic legislation guarantees various forms of exclusivity for specific drugs, indications, or studies. This study notes prolonged exclusivity provisions for biologics in the United States and international trade agreements. We aim to review various exclusivity systems, including chemical entities, in selected high-income countries and to suggest implications for establishing the system specifically relevant for biologics in low- and middle-income countries. Methods We conducted a review of a comprehensive range of literature to develop the framework. Then, a comparative legal analysis was conducted to analyze the deviations among the systems in the European Union, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and the United States. Results There is constructive ambiguity in international trade agreements, specifically for provisions regarding biologics. Furthermore, the selected countries operate different statutory exclusivity systems in terms of eligibility for statutory exclusivity, specific measures for exclusivity, and other elements of exclusivity. In addition, market exclusivity, which is distinguished from data exclusivity, is not available in Korea and Australia. There are also various forms of statutory exclusivity for specific drugs, indications, or studies requested by the marketing authority. Conclusions Given constructive ambiguities in international agreements and variations in the manner of implementations of the systems in selected countries, statutory exclusivity for biologics could be established with cautions to mediate the harms. In this study, we suggest several solutions and alternatives for low- and middle-income countries.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidy Bibo ◽  
Julie Spencer-Rodgers ◽  
Benaissa Zarhbouch ◽  
Mostafa Bouanini ◽  
Kaiping Peng

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