IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v28y2017i1p113-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workers’ rights and transatlantic trade relations: The TTIP and beyond

Author

Listed:
  • Aneta Tyc

Abstract

In the context of the working-class backlash against free trade represented by Brexit, the recent surge of right-wing political parties in Europe and the 2016 US presidential election, it is timely to take stock of the threats to jobs and wages posed by recent negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The European Commission selectively relied on econometric analyses, predicting a positive impact of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Its proposed legal text on ‘Trade and sustainable development’ fell short of the European Parliament’s negotiating guidelines, which themselves failed to ensure protection of labour standards. The activities of corporate lobbies threatened the effective protection of workers’ rights. Major risks to workers’ rights are posed by discrepancies between US and European Union labour and social law and labour standards. The most recent legal text lacks compliance monitoring provisions and sanction mechanisms against member states failing to ratify core labour conventions. The investment court system does not resolve the problems of the discredited investor-state dispute settlement mechanism for which it is the proposed replacement. The year 2016 has provided a foretaste of the dislocation likely from trade and investment regulation that sees social and environmental standards and labour rights simply as barriers to corporate profits.

Suggested Citation

  • Aneta Tyc, 2017. "Workers’ rights and transatlantic trade relations: The TTIP and beyond," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(1), pages 113-128, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:28:y:2017:i:1:p:113-128
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304617690971
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1035304617690971
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1035304617690971?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lionel Fontagné & Julien Gourdon & Sébastien Jean, 2013. "Transatlantic Trade: Whither Partnership, Which Economic Consequences?," CEPII Policy Brief 2013-01, CEPII research center.
    2. Sabine Stephan, 2015. "Is TTIP a Growth and Employment Engine for Southern Europe?," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 2, pages 57-62.
    3. Jeffrey Schott & Cathleen Cimino, 2013. "Keys to negotiating the transatlantic trade and investment partnership," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 48(4), pages 263-264, July.
    4. Dean Baker, 2014. "The risks of the transatlantic trade and investment partnership," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 49(3), pages 179-180, May.
    5. Gerda van Roozendaal, 2015. "The Diffusion of Labour Standards: The Case of the US and Guatemala," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(2), pages 18-33.
    6. Daniel S. Hamilton, 2014. "Transatlantic Challenges: Ukraine, TTIP and the Struggle to be Strategic," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52, pages 25-39, November.
    7. Giuseppe Celi, 2015. "How Beneficial is TTIP for EU Countries? Economic Gains and Social Costs of an Ambitious Project," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 2, pages 11-34.
    8. Jeffrey S. Vogt, 2015. "The Evolution of Labor Rights and Trade—A Transatlantic Comparison and Lessons for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 827-860.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axel Marx & Franz Ebert & Nicolas Hachez, 2017. "Dispute Settlement for Labour Provisions in EU Free Trade Agreements: Rethinking Current Approaches," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 49-59.
    2. Kevin Kolben, 2017. "A Supply Chain Approach to Trade and Labor Provisions," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 60-68.
    3. Beckman, Jayson & Burfisher, Mary & Mitchell, Lorraine & Arita, Shawn, 2021. "Hidden obstacles to trade: The case of the EU’s Ban on beef hormones," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 1332-1343.
    4. Dagmara Nikulin & Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz & Aleksandra Parteka, 2022. "Working Conditions in Global Value Chains: Evidence for European Employees," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(4), pages 701-721, August.
    5. Christophe Destais, 2016. "Central Bank Currency Swaps and the International Monetary System," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(10), pages 2253-2266, October.
    6. Matthieu Crozet & Gianluca Orefice, 2017. "Trade and Labor Market: What Do We Know?," CEPII Policy Brief 2017-15, CEPII research center.
    7. Philipp M. Richter & Greta F. Schäffer, 2014. "Die Kontroverse um das Freihandelsabkommen TTIP," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 42, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Aichele Rahel & Felbermayr Gabriel J. & Heiland Inga, 2016. "TTIP and Intra-European Trade: Boon or Bane?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 236(6), pages 639-664, December.
    9. Gene M. Grossman & Phillip McCalman & Robert W. Staiger, 2021. "The “New” Economics of Trade Agreements: From Trade Liberalization to Regulatory Convergence?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 215-249, January.
    10. Gabriel Felbermayr & Mario Larch & Mario Larch, 2014. "Transatlantic Free Trade: Questions and Answers from the Vantage Point of Trade Theory," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(04), pages 03-17, January.
    11. Charis Vlados & Nikolaos Deniozos & Demosthenes Chatzinikolaou & Michail Demertzis, 2018. "Perceiving Competitiveness under the Restructuring Process of Globalization," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(8), pages 135-135, June.
    12. Pietrzyck, Katja & Petersen, Brigitte & Jarzębowski, Sebastian, 2018. "The Role of quality management in the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Part nership (TTIP): the case of the polish Agri-food sector," Problems of Agricultural Economics / Zagadnienia Ekonomiki Rolnej 276627, Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute (IAFE-NRI).
    13. Gros, Daniel & Alcidi, Cinzia, 2014. "The Global Economy in 2030: Trends and Strategies for Europe," CEPS Papers 9142, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    14. Aleksandra Sojka & Jorge Diaz-Lanchas & Federico Steinberg, 2019. "The Politicization of Transatlantic Trade in Europe: Explaining Inconsistent Preferences Regarding Free Trade and the TTIP," JRC Working Papers on Territorial Modelling and Analysis 2019-09, Joint Research Centre.
    15. Etienne Espagne, 2016. "Climate Finance at COP21 and After: Lessons Learnt," CEPII Policy Brief 2016-09, CEPII research center.
    16. Latorre, María C. & Yonezawa, Hidemichi, 2016. "An innovative CGE assessment of the impact of the TTIP including multinationals and Foreign Direct Investment," Conference papers 332765, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    17. Michel Aglietta & Virginie Coudert, 2015. "Currency Turmoil in an Unbalanced World Economy," Bankers, Markets & Investors, ESKA Publishing, issue 139, pages 46-57, November-.
    18. Xavier Chojnicki & Anthony Edo & Lionel Ragot, 2016. "Intra-European Labor Migration in Crisis Times," CEPII Policy Brief 2016-13, CEPII research center.
    19. Engler, Philipp & Tervala, Juha, 2018. "Welfare effects of TTIP in a DSGE model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 230-238.
    20. Oliver Krebs & Michael Pflüger, 2018. "How deep is your love? A quantitative spatial analysis of the transatlantic trade partnership," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 171-222, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:28:y:2017:i:1:p:113-128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.