Labour Obligations in the US-Chile Free Agreement: The Illusion of Soft Law

This article focuses on the effects on labour of the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The author makes a brief introductory reference to the origins of international labour law and the new developments in worker protection in times of globalization, highlighting the social clause, among other mechanisms. The social clause in Chapter 18 of the United States-Chile FTA is examined, basically identifying four types of standards: Labour commitments, labour obligations, cooperation, and procedures. Since labour commitments constitute soft law guidelines, their practical efficacy is equivalent to that of a policy statement. On the other hand, a breach of Labour Obligations can result in financial penalties for the offender. However, these Labour Obligations are limited to monitoring the enforcement of each Member State's existing labour laws. The social clause is, therefore, fairly sterile, and the author concludes that the worker protection mechanisms in this type of FTA are in need of reformulation.