미국의 노동기준 연계 무역정책과 한미FTA 노동조항의 전망

Abstract

The KOR-US FTA is a bilateral trade agreement applied with the New Trade Policy of 2007 by the US government. The FTA has put the labor provisions not in an annexe, but in the body. Furthermore, It has included 「ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up(1998)」 in the labor provisions. The general procedures of disputes settlement would be allowed for labor disputes the same as disputes on the trade and investment provisions. The public communication process is for individuals or organizations claiming some violations of labor provisions against the contracting party. However, the KOR-US agreement is only a bilateral trade agreement, even though it has provided the ILO fundamental labor rights in the main text. The purpose of the agreement is essentially different from the ILO conventions for the fundamental labor rights. The U.S. and Korea labor laws already have guaranteed their workers labor standards and collective rights higher level than the FTA labor provisions. And the pre-steps for the general disputes settlement is very complicated and time-consuming. Then, we can not expect that the labor provisions would contribute to improve labor standards for workers in both countries. Rather, the provisions could be treated as a possible resort to take an advantageous position in a trade or investment disputes by contracting party.