Why nafta failed and what's needed to protect workers' health and safety in international trade treaties

Abstract

Labor standards, including occupational health and safety regulations and enforcement, are being subjected to intense downward pressures as a result of fundamental shifts in the global economy. The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the first trade treaty that attempted to promote and protect workplace health and safety through a "labor side agreement." NAFTA failed to protect workers' health and safety due to the weaknesses of the side agreement's text; the political and diplomatic considerations limiting its implementation; and the failure to recognize and address the economic context, and political consequences of this context, in which the agreement was implemented. Subsequent trade treaties, both bilateral and regional, have not overcome the weaknesses of NAFTA. The treaty components needed to protect workers' health in future trade agreements are: 1) a minimum floor of occupational health and safety regulations; 2) an "upward harmonization" of regulatory standards and actual practice; 3) inclusion of employers so that they have formal responsibility and liability for violations of the standards; 4) effective enforcement of national regulations and international standards; 5) transparency and public participation; and 6) recognition of disparate economic conditions among trading partners and provision of financial and technical assistance to overcome economic disincentives and lack of resources. Also required are continued actions by non-governmental actors, including the workers themselves and civil society organizations.