Les normes de travail dans les traités de libre-échange

Since the 1990s, we have seen a proliferation of bilateral trade agreements. Many of these have encompassed topics that are not directly linked to trade, such as political institutions, sustainable development, labour standards or competition policy. The European Union itself is caught up in this trend. It has thus undertaken to promote labour standards and decent work in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations over and above basic compliance with core labour standards. The aim of this study is to identify the clauses relative to labour, social practices and sustainable development in bilateral and regional free trade agreements: their scope, implementation and their consequences. We shall discuss the relative merits of the various options.