1、 https:/crsreports.congress.gov Updated December 18, 2020Labor Enforcement Issues in U.S. FTAsBackground Labor provisions in free trade agreements (FTAs)both in the U.S. and globallywere first included in the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), a side agreement to the 1994 North A
2、merican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since then, U.S. provisions have evolved from commitments not just to enforce a countrys own domestic labor laws, but also to adopt and enforce core principles of the International Labor Organization (ILO). As requested by Congress through trade promotion author
3、ity (TPA), recent U.S. FTAs also subject labor chapters to the same dispute settlement (DS) procedures as other obligations, although with minor modifications. Some Members of Congress view strong labor provisions in U.S. FTAs as an important issue and have raised concerns over FTA partner complianc
4、e with commitments and the U.S. record of enforcement. These issues were part of the debate in the renegotiation of NAFTA as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force in 2020. Labor standards are not part of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules; in 1996, members reaffirmed t