On September 29, the sixth lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online, which was organized by the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. Centered on the theme of "Labor Clauses in International Trade Agreements: International vs. China", Ms. Irene Zhou, former Expert on Labor Law from the ILO China and Mongolia Bureau and Professor Lin Yanling from the CULR made presentations titled Comparison of Labor Clauses and Models in Free Trade Agreements and Challenges of CPTPP Labor Standards to China respectively. More than 210 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the CULR listened online.

In the lecture, Ms. Irene Zhou focused on the key points of the international nature of labor issues, model comparison of labor clauses and main framework content, and explained the commonalities and differences of labor clauses between the US model and the EU model. She noted that these two models have commonalities of international labor standards with no mitigation, implementation mechanism of labor clauses, implementation mechanism of appeal and dispute resolution, cooperation among contracting parties, and the role of ILO in labor clauses, as well as differences of quoting international labor standards, the extent of social dialogue and public engagement, and implementation mechanism. From her point of view, such differences are mainly caused by the different views on labor issues in free trade, the game of stakeholders of industrial relations and the political system. With respect to the influence of labor clauses on the industrial relations of the contracting states, she used the examples of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the US-Vietnam plan and Vietnam's reform of labor law to illustrate the influence of labor clauses on the reform of labor law, and used the case of dispute of the EU over South Korea's implementation of labor standards to explain the role of labor clauses in promoting the implementation of ILO labor standards. When talking about the influence of labor clauses on global industrial relations, she noted it includes the intersection of industrial relations at the international level, advancement of the reform of labor laws and reconstruction of the industrial relations system in the contracting states, and enhancement of the enforcement of international labor standards. She also put forward the prospects for the future development of labor clauses: despite the convergence of the elements of labor clauses, the characteristics of respective models must be sustained; the contracting states and ILO are to strengthen cooperation to protect the consistency and effectiveness of international labor standards; the labor clauses need to be improved to address the globalizing labor issues.

Next, from the perspective of China's access to CPTPP and existing problems, Professor Lin Yanling introduced the challenges of CPTPP's labor standards to China, and briefed the characteristics of labor clauses in trade and investment agreements. From her point of view, CPTPP's labor standards have potential, complicated and diversified challenges to and impacts on China, which mainly include four points: firstly, to join the CPTPP, China must align its labor law with the international labor standards; secondly, China's 105 international investment treaties that have been signed and entered into force do not include labor clauses, and among the 19 free trade agreements that have been signed and entered into force, only 5 contain labor clauses, showing an apparent gap with the CPTPP's labor clauses and an urgent need of modifying and improving foreign trade rules; thirdly, as the CPTPP officially takes effect, the labor law enforcement of foreign-funded enterprises and exporters in one contracting state will be subject to the surveillance of others, and thus, the statutory obligations and social responsibilities of these enterprises are strengthened; fourthly, after getting access to the CPTPP, a member state's issues of labor standards will evolve into social and political issues in nature, leading to changes of the nature and handling methods of labor disputes. She noted that China is exerting great efforts in addressing the challenges of labor standards. In the future, we should change our mindset, stopping avoiding and facing all these issues squarely. By means of establishing a CPTPP research and coordination leadership work group across departments of the State Council, setting up a state-level research program for rolling tracking of CPTPP in the long run, and strengthening communication, consultation and dialogue concerning labor standards between different countries, China will reinforce the top-level design, carry out the reform of labor law, develop coordinated and consistent labor standards, and endeavor to achieve the internal-external consistency of stance and practice of protecting laborers, so as to realize positive interaction between international and domestic labor fields, and jointly create a new situation of protecting laborers' rights and interests.

In the interaction session, the attending audience had in-depth discussions with Ms. Irene Zhou and Professor Lin Yanling on topics like the advancement of relevant research, scope of research and research team building in the future.

(International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)

The Lecturers' Profile

Irene Zhou has long been engaged in the ILO labor affairs since 2003. She has participated in a series of discussions concerning the ILO issues including the transition from informal economy to formal economy, basic principles and rights in work, and decent work in the global supply chain. She has also joined the negotiations of Canada with Singapore and South Korea on the labor clauses in free trade agreements, and the technical consultation with China on the free trade agreement.

Lin Yanling, a Professor from the CULR , focuses on the comparative study of international labor standards and China's labor law, and the study of workers' awareness of rights. She has led and participated in a number of programs of the National Social Science Fund of China, the Ministry of Justice and international cooperation.