WASHINGTON - Senior Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce George Miller (D-CA) and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander M. Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement regarding the release of the Government Accountability Office’s reports on the U.S. government’s efforts to monitor and enforce the labor and environmental obligations contained in U.S. free trade agreements:
As global competition has intensified, strong labor and environmental obligations are essential elements of U.S. trade agreements and U.S. trade policy. These obligations reflect our core values of helping to ensure a level playing field for our workers and businesses and to build middle classes that can purchase our exports.
While today’s reports confirm that specific obligations in our free trade agreements have resulted in the partner countries taking steps to raise their labor and environmental standards, the reports also make clear that much more needs to be done to ensure that existing commitments are fully implemented and enforced. In particular, labor provisions in existing free trade agreements have not been consistently monitored or enforced, and investigations into violations have been subject to extensive delays, both of which have contributed to the persistence of problematic labor conditions.
We need a more systematic and coordinated approach to enforcement within the Administration, and the Administration and Congress need to work together to provide the tools and resources to achieve that goal.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these issues. The magnitude has been highlighted by the continuing threats and violence in Colombia against workers who seek to exercise their right to associate and in Bangladesh, where millions work in the apparel industry under abysmal conditions and without any voice in the workplace. We also have witnessed firsthand the necessary role of labor and environmental provisions in trade agreements in our travels to other nations, including Honduras, Guatemala, and Peru.
As the trade agenda moves forward in the next Congress, these GAO reports confirm the importance of having strong, enforceable labor and environmental provisions in our trade agreements that are actively and fully implemented."
