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Architectural Digest For International Trade And Labor Law: Regional Free Trade Agreements And Minimum Criteria For Enforceable Social Clauses, Marley S. Weiss

Marley S. Weiss

Until the advent of binding “social clauses” in free trade arrangements, and incorporation of stronger social rights in the European Community treaties, the rapid widening and deepening of international commercial integration proceeded largely separate from international labor rights obligations. Inclusion of a “social clause” in a trade agreement ensures that the parties´ international labor rights commitments have equal dignity and binding force with their trade obligations. The threat of economic sanction for non-observance of labor commitments akin to the penalties for trade rule violations also may provide some “teeth” to induce compliance, unlike the lack of economic sanctions for violation …