Enforcement clause of TPP deal is key to worker protection

Lance Compa, attorney and expert in labor law and corporate fairness at Cornell University’s ILR School, discusses the implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major trade agreement between the United States, Japan and 11 other Pacific Rim nations.

Compa says: “Workers’ rights advocates will want to carefully study the TPP’s labor chapter to see if the Administration’s claim of strengthened workplace protections holds up. Its enforcement clause is key.

“In earlier trade pacts such as NAFTA and CAFTA, timid enforcement failed to remedy violations of workers’ rights by governments and multinational companies.”