ESDC to 'promote,' 'enforce' labour rights in other countries, under CPTPP trade deal

The Liberal government has assigned its human resources department to begin to monitor and “enforce” labour standards in other countries, under the new Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Budget 2019 redirected $680,000 per year of Employment and Social Development Canada’s budget towards an effort to “promote, monitor, and enforce labour standards in CPTPP partner countries"—those that signed onto the CPTPP trade deal. The re-assigning of ESDC funds towards labour rights in CPTPP countries was buried deep in the 2019 budget unveiled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, left, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Vietnam will be the first country the government goes to work with, according to a spokesperson for ESDC, according to ESDC spokesperson Jessica Seguin. Experts in trade policy and international labour law say the move will help, if only a little, to address labour rights problems in some of the less developed member countries in the deal, and also take a small step towards reducing the competitive advantage countries with lower labour standards—and cheaper labour as a result—have over Canada. Canada signed onto the CPTPP last year, a trade agreement with 10 Pacific-facing countries: Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Chile, Peru, and Singapore. Canada and six of the other members have now ratified the agreement. The agreement is a revised version of the TPP agreement agreed to in 2015 by all of those countries and the United States. The U.S. withdrew from the deal after President Donald Trump took office. The CPTPP includes a chapter on labour that obligates all members to allow collective bargaining by labour groups within their borders, eliminate child labour, forced labour, and employment discrimination, and ensure "acceptable" wages, working hours, and conditions for workers. The Liberal government touted the CPTPP labour chapter as the strongest “of any trade deal in history” in the previous year’s budget. As well as promoting human rights, putting those terms in the deal is an attempt to ensure that all of the countries are operating on a reasonably level playing field in terms of labour costs, said Adam Taylor, the president of the trade consultancy Export Action Global and a former adviser to former Conservative trade minister Ed Fast. “In small ways, it could go to address certain things that are very visible in the globalization world. A lot of countries have advantages due to low-cost labour,” he said. Trade Minister Jim Carr is responsible for overseeing the CPTPP trade deal, which was signed by his predecessor, Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who is now in charge of the infrastructure portfolio. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Vietnam bans the formation of labour unions for collective bargaining, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, and there are numerous reports from recent years, including the 2017 Human Rights Watch report, of the country putting drug users in detention camps where they are forced to work. Vietnam has made strides towards improving labour rights over the past few years, according to a 2018 report on human rights in the country by the U.S. State Department. Child and forced labour remains a problem in Malaysia, where collective bargaining is also restricted, according to a 2018 report on the country by the State Department. In Brunei, forced labour remains a problem, and collective bargaining is restricted. Neither of those countries have yet ratified the CPTPP. ESDC staff will likely work with public servants in some of the other CPTPP countries to help them, where needed, to reshape their labour laws, and how they are enforced, so they meet the standards laid out under the trade deal, according to Ms. Seguin. The department may also work with third parties, such as the International Labour Organization. The effort will be organized through ESDC's Labour Funding Program, which has funded labour rights projects in Vietnam and Peru in years past. If Canada’s government believes that another country in the deal isn’t living up to its labour commitments, or trying to, it can trigger a dispute resolution process laid out under the CPTPP, starting with a country-to-country “dialogue” on the issue, and eventually progressing to formal arbitration that could impose trade sanctions on the country running afoul of the rules. Ms. Seguin pointed to that mechanism when asked how the government planned to enforce minimum labour standards in other countries. The CPTPP isn’t the first trade deal to require a commitment to labour standards, and labour advocates have argued that those standards have rarely been enforced in the past, given the diplomatic will and resources needed to take another country to task successfully. Dedicating a line in the budget to the Labour Funding Program, specifically for the CPTPP, “signals is that the government is putting on a firmer budgetary basis what has been a pretty long-standing policy of linking labour rights to trade,” said Kevin Banks, the director of the Queen’s Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace, and a former director of Inter-American Labour Co-operation in the federal public service. While Global Affairs Canada is responsible for Canada’s international relations, trade agreements invariably cascade down to other departments with expertise in some aspects of the deals. Tasking ESDC with work on an international labour project “makes perfect sense,” said Mr. Taylor. The United States runs similar programs, with its Department of Labor sometimes spending $5-million or $6-million to help another country to improve its labour standards, said Lance Compa, who teaches international labour law and rights at Cornell University, and previously directed labor law research at the NAFTA Commission for Labor Cooperation. “It’s not a panacea. The problems are still there,” he said, but “the alternative is doing nothing, and then it will be even worse.” The projects often involve providing training and sometimes equipment to labour investigators in other countries, to make it easier for them to enforce new labour laws or standards, he said. “I think in general the people in these agencies want to do a good job,” he said, adding they are sometimes hampered by a lack of resources. peter@hilltimes.com Countries that have ratified the CPTPP trade agreement Canada Australia New Zealand Mexico Japan Singapore Vietnam Labour commitments in the CPTPP The deal commits the signatory countries to the following terms, and some others: Adopt and maintain in statutes and regulations, and practices thereunder, the following rights as stated in the ILO Declaration: (a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; (b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour; (c) the effective abolition of child labour and, for the purposes of this Agreement, a prohibition on the worst forms of child labour; and (d) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Adopt and maintain statutes and regulations, and practices thereunder, governing acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health. Promote public awareness of its labour laws.

ESDC to ‘promote,’ ‘enforce’ labour rights in other countries, under CPTPP trade deal

Employment and Social Development Canada has had part of its budget re-directed towards ensuring Canada's CPTPP trading partners live up to their commitments around labour.

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ESDC to ‘promote,’ ‘enforce’ labour rights in other countries, under CPTPP trade deal

Employment and Social Development Canada has had part of its budget re-directed towards ensuring Canada's CPTPP trading partners live up to their commitments around labour.

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