Free Trade Agreements and Labour Rights: Recent Developments

Doumbia-Henry, Cleopatra, Gravel, Eric, International Labour Review

The debate over whether international trade and respect for certain labour rights should be linked is an old one. In fact, it dates back to the very first attempts to establish international labour regulations in the nineteenth century.1 During the industrial revolution, the charitable urge to impose constraints on appalling working conditions was set against a preoccupation that was economic in nature. Indeed, entrepreneurs wishing to introduce improvements in employment conditions could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in that their production costs rose as a result. They therefore sought to secure generalized minimum guarantees for wage earners and regulations that were …

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Publication information: Article title: Free Trade Agreements and Labour Rights: Recent Developments. Contributors: Doumbia-Henry, Cleopatra - Author, Gravel, Eric - Author. Journal title: International Labour Review. Volume: 145. Issue: 3 Publication date: July 1, 2006. Page number: 185+. © 2008 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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