Labour rights in Peru and the EU trade agreement: compliance with the commitments under the sustainable development chapter

European Union (EU) trade policy has become increasingly contested and politicised. Citizens and politicians have become more and more concerned about the human rights and sustainable development implications of free trade. The European Commission in its ‘Trade for All’ Strategy has recognized the need for a more value-based trade policy. In the same vein, the EU has included a chapter on Trade and Sustainable Development in recent free trade agreements. However, there is still much uncertainty about the specifics of these legal commitments and about their implementation in practice. In this study, we aim to assess the labour rights commitments in the EU-Peru-Colombia agreement, with a specific focus on Peru and the agricultural sector. Based on an analytical framework that summarises the labour-related commitments of the sustainable development Title into three categories – upholding ILO Core Labour Standards, non-lowering domestic labour law, and promoting civil society dialogue – we conclude that Peru has failed to comply in a number of areas. We also make recommendations for the EU and civil society and suggestions for more profound and systematic research

EU bilateral trade agreements and the surprising rise of labour provisions

Surprisingly, labour provisions in EU bilateral trade agreements have widened and deepened over the past decade. One would have expected the opposite, given the coming to power of centre-right governments in the early 2000s and a stronger liberalization agenda since 2006. This article addresses this rather remarkable development. First of all it dismisses the argument that protectionist motives underlie the stronger social clauses in EU trade agreements. Instead, drawing on the theory of the life-cycle of norms, it suggests that social trade has become an unobjectionable norm within the EU. The article then offers several explanations for why the social-trade nexus has been barely disputed, and indeed has further expanded through subsequent trade arrangements. These include the stronger influence of the European Parliament, path-dependencies stemming from the EU’s previous template, and the need to gain public support in the face of criticism of free trade agreements. Most importantly, it stresses that the framing of core labour rights as part of a broader ‘sustainable development’ agenda has contributed to their unobjectionable status. While this framing has helped to forge a consensus with regard to the social trade agenda, giving equal status to labour and environmental provisions under the sustainable development umbrella might also have adverse consequences for the concept of labour provisions

Civil society meetings in EU trade agreements: recommendations and lessons for EPAs

EU trade agreements increasingly involve civil society to discuss and monitor sustainable development. Evaluations of these civil society meetings vary widely from being mere talking shops to empowering platforms. The new EPAs have weak or no provisions on civil society involvement and should be strengthened in this regard. In order to maximise the full potential of these meetings, lessons can be drawn from the existing mechanisms

What social face of the new EU trade agreements? Beyond the 'soft' approach

The EU has often been accused of soft approach to trade-labour linkages in trade agreement by the inclusion of labour provisions in the trade and sustainable development chapter and by a focus on cooperation and dialogue. Rather than focusing on hard enforcement proceeding, the EU is not yet exploring all the opportunities created under these chapters. This Policy Brief outlines a different approach that the EU can use in demanding respect for labour rights in its trade agreement with third countries. It shows the need to develop a thorough, systematic and inclusive monitoring process involving civil society while developing an holistic approach for the promotion of labour rights going beyond EU’s trade relations

The impact of labour rights commitments in EU trade agreements : the case of Peru

While the inclusion of labour rights in European Union (EU) trade agreements has become an ‘unobjectionable norm’, analyses of their impact have been largely absent from the literature. This article aims to partly fill this gap in existing research by examining the impact of labour rights commitments in the EU–Peru–Colombia agreement, with particular reference to the agricultural sector in Peru. Following a brief background overview of labour rights in agriculture in Peru, we draw up the analytical framework for assessing the impact of these commitments. We discern three distinctive legal commitments and find that they are flexible and conservative, also compared to provisions in other EU trade agreements. Subsequently, we assess the impact of these commitments by analysing to what extent they are being upheld in practice. Empirical evidence from several sources, including field research, shows that the Peruvian government has failed to implement the labour rights commitments in several respects. In the conclusions, we point to the cautious role of the EU, which has scope to monitor Peru’s labour rights compliance more proactively

Evaluatie van de mini-FLOTAC-methode voor de detectie van gastro-intestinale parasieten bij grote huisdieren

A new technique, mini-FLOTAC, has recently been developed for the microscopic diagnosis of infections with gastro-intestinal nematodes in domestic animals. In this comparative study of diagnostic techniques, the mini-FLOTAC technique was compared to the commonly used McMaster technique for the detection and quantification of gastro-intestinal parasites in livestock as well as for the evaluation of the time needed to perform the assays. One hundred fecal samples (78 horses, 11 bovines, 6 sheep and 5 goats) were examined with both the mini-FLOTAC and McMaster technique. This revealed that more infections with gastro-intestinal parasites could be diagnosed with the mini-FLOTAC technique than with the McMaster technique, but the comparative study also showed a very high correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.90, p < 0.001) between both techniques regarding the number of eggs per gram feces (EPG) detected. The time needed to examine the samples with the mini-FLOTAC technique (13 minutes) was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the time needed with the McMaster technique (6 minutes). This difference in time also depended on the observed EPG value, as with high EPG values, the difference in time between both techniques increased even more. In conclusion, the mini-FLOTAC technique can be preferred when an accurate diagnosis of a low infection level is necessary, e.g. to detect anthelmintic resistance. In other circumstances, the faster McMaster technique can be considered as the preferable technique