Industry News

GAO Reports on Labor and Environmental Provisions of FTAs

November 14, 2014


    Two November 2014 reports released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzed the effectiveness of environmental and labor provisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the US and Central and South American countries.  The environmental report concentrated on the success in the implementation of the FTA provisions, U.S. oversight, and U.S. assistance.  The GAO concluded that while the Department of State enhanced their monitoring since the last report in 2009, there is still a “lack [of] timeframes and performance indicators to measure partner progress in meeting FTA environmental commitments.”  The GAO specifically recommended that standards be set for Peru to address issues in the “forestry sector.”

    The labor report from the GAO recommends increasing “monitoring and enforcement.”  Countries such as Columbia, Oman and Peru have altered their labor laws and other countries have worked to eliminate “violence against union members.”  However, since 2008, there have been a total of five complaints regarding FTA labor infractions in Bahrain, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru.  The GAO found that the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Labor did not properly monitor or enforce the FTA requirements although there has been improvement since the 2009 review.  The GAO recommended that the Department of Labor “reevaluate its submission review time frame and better inform stakeholders about the submission process” while also working to better “enforce labor provisions.”

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