The Impact of Labour Rights Commitments in EU Trade Agreements: The Case of Peru

Abstract

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.

Labour Standards and Trade: In Search of Impact and Alternative Instruments

“…Such studies provide a more detailed insight into the nature of the impact and the reasons for (a lack of) direct impact. The country studies in this volume on South Korea (Van Roozendaal, 2017), Peru (Orbie, van den Putte, & Martens, 2017), and also to a certain extent Brazil (Riethof, 2017), are illustrations of this approach. Also Oehri (2017) departs from a local perspective, examining civil society complaints in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.…”

“…The empowering effects of FTAs are related to the position of civil society and are often the effect of institution building. The articles by Orbie et al (2017) and Van Roozendaal (2017) in this issue show that there is very limited impact. Riethof (2017) is more positive in terms of how Mercosur has created space for civil society.…”

Forging their path in the Brussels bubble? Civil society resistance within the domestic advisory groups created under the EU trade agreements

“…This is often explained by restrictive legal provisions and in particular weak dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms under the TSD chapters (Campling et al 2016;Kube 2019). Stakeholders mostly direct their criticism at the institutional weaknesses (Altintzis 2013;Ebert 2016;Marx et al 2016;Orbie et al 2017;. In addition, academics have pointed to the absence of clear linkages between civil society input and policy-making (Velut 2016;, to EU discourses delimiting possibilities for civil society to advocate paradigmatic changes which may foster cooptation (Hannah 2016;Orbie et al 2016;Ford 2018;Lawrence 2018;Holden 2019), and to overall structural limitations on the influence of certain interest groups within the DAGs (Smith et al 2018).…”

Efectos de la firma del Acuerdo Comercial entre el Perú y la Unión Europea en las exportaciones de café de la provincia de La Convención - Cusco a Bélgica, en el marco del Comercio Justo, en el periodo 2012-2018

“…La investigación de Orbie (2017), denominado The Impact of Labour Rights Commitments in EU Trade Agreements: The Case of Peru, explora el impacto que ha tenido el acuerdo comercial entre el Perú y la UE en cuanto a los derechos laborales. El documento señala la importancia del sector agrícola en el PBI peruano, representando el 7.8% del total, en el que se empleó al menos al 25% de la población económicamente activa, según datos del Banco Mundial.…”

“…Así, el resultado de la investigación indica que la mejora legal que la UE intentó implantar ha tenido serias deficiencias, puesto que, el desarrollo de las instituciones, la promoción y empoderamiento de los derechos laborales en el Perú han sido inexistentes, esto como resultado de que el Estado peruano haya reducido la legislación laboral, pues se ha encontrado baja presencia de dialogo en la sociedad civil. (Orbie, 2017) En cuanto la relación entre el comercio justo y la actitud altruista de ciertos consumidores en su elección de café se tiene el artículo investigativo Effect of Environmental and Altruistic Attitudes on Willingness-to-Pay for Organic and Fair Trade Coffee in Flanders, de la Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, de Bélgica, país foco de la presente investigación.…”