“公平贸易”中的劳工标准——浅述贸易和投资条约中的劳工标准问题

Labor Standards Associated with Fair Trade:An Analysis of Incorporation of Labor Provisions into Trade and Investment Treaties

随着经济全球化深入发展,发达国家提出公平贸易的理念,主张国际投资和贸易活动中应关注劳工问题,通过贸易手段推动落实劳工标准。西方发达国家力图在世界贸易组织等多边机构制订的贸易规则中加入涉及劳工等问题的社会条款,但由于发展中国家的强烈反对,无法取得突破。于是,美国、欧盟等国家要求在双边贸易协议中加入劳工条款。目前,我国正在与美国开展双边投资协定谈判,即将开启与欧盟的投资协定谈判。这些谈判案文都涉及贸易与劳工挂钩问题。我国长期坚持反对挂钩的立场。随着我国经济和社会的发展,政府更加重视社会公平和民生事业,我们已经具备了落实劳工标准扎实的立法和实践基础,可以接受将劳工条款直接融入到投资贸易协定之中。

With the advance of economic globalization, the developed economies call for the incorporation of labor issues into in- ternational trade and investment activities, and advocate enforcing labor standards with trade measures with a view to realizing fair trade. The developed nations of the West endeavour to insert social clauses including labor provisions into trade regimes adopted by the multilateral organizations such as the WTO. Their efforts dome to no avail on account of strong resistance from developing coun- tries. Alternatively, the US and EU countries are among the leading nations to demand inclusion of labor provisions in bilateral trade agreements. At present, China is engaging in BIT negotiations with the US, will soon launch BIT negotiations with the EU. All these treaty texts touch upon the question of a direct link between trade and labor. For some time, China has upheld the principle of opposing any linkage between labor standards and trade. With economic and social development, China already has a solid foundation in place, in law and practice, for labor standards compliance, and could accept inclusion of a labor dimension in trade and investment treaties.