Labour provisions in trade agreements can help countries implement international labour standards, the ILO told a high-level conference titled: New trade rules for a disorderly world, co-organized by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES).
Marva Corley-Coulibaly, Senior Economist at the ILO, highlighted that labour provisions have become an increasingly common feature of trade agreements. Today, about one in three trade agreements notified to the World Trade Organization includes labour provisions, while around 70 per cent of agreements with such provisions refer to the ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
These provisions create additional incentives for Member States to put into practice their already agreed labour commitments, through the mobilization of resources to support legislative and institutional reforms, capacity-building and social dialogue.
Under the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement, for example, the ILO worked with Viet Nam and its social partners on labour law reform and the ratification and implementation of fundamental Conventions, as well as on strengthening institutions and social dialogue.
As the world of work evolves, greater policy coherence is needed. The same economic activity can now be governed simultaneously by trade, labour, investment, enterprise and digital policy, while those discussions often take place in silos.
Services are the fastest growing part of trade, and employment in services is equally growing. "Digital trade and platforms are a good example," Corley-Coulibaly said. "They can open international markets to workers and small enterprises, by lowering barriers to access. In many countries, a large share of such work is informal. This raises the question: Are digital platforms and trade creating a viable pathway to formalization, or are they simply digitizing the informal economy?"
The ILO's new Convention on Decent work in the platform economy (No. 193) illustrates how the international labour framework is responding. It covers both location-based and online platform work, while the accompanying resolution underlines that some digital labour platforms operate across borders, making cooperation between Member States particularly relevant for the implementation of the Convention.
As the boundaries between trade and labour evolve, our policy frameworks also need to make those connections, Corley-Coulibaly concluded.
