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Comparative Advantage And Labor Protections In Free Trade Agreements: Making Labor Protections In Trade Agreements Practical And Effective, Michael E. Aleo

ExpressO

The tension between competitiveness in international trade and the improvement of living standards has become a central controversy in negotiating trade agreements. Under pressure from the labor rights movement over the course of the last twenty-five years, the United States has regularly advocated for the inclusion of labor standards in trade relationships. Generally, governments in developing countries resist the incorporation of labor protections in trade agreements because of a belief that labor protections diminish a nation’s competitiveness in the international marketplace. Labor rights advocates, particularly in the United States, have fought for the inclusion of labor rights in trade agreements …