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Introduction

Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to testify regarding workers’ human rights under the proposed United States-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (D.R.-CAFTA).  Human Rights Watch takes no position on free trade per se, but we take an active interest in workers’ human rights.  We believe that trade agreements can provide leverage to promote workers’ rights, but only when meaningful, enforceable labor rights protections are built into the fabric of the accords.  Unfortunately, D.R.-CAFTA does not contain such protections. 

D.R.-CAFTA fails to require compliance with even the most basic internationally recognized labor rights norms and specifically fails to protect women workers against discrimination.  The labor rights provisions even fall short of the existing workers’ rights criteria contained in the unilateral trade preferences programs currently governing trade between the United States and Central America and the Caribbean.  They also fall short of the labor rights provisions in the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, entered into force in December 2001. If passed, D.R.-CAFTA will mark an unfortunate step backwards for the protection of workers’ human rights in the context of U.S. trade. 

While D.R.-CAFTA does create a Labor Cooperation and Capacity Building Mechanism—often  cited to support assertions that the accord goes further on behalf of workers’ rights than either the trade preference programs or the U.S.-Jordan agreement—there is no guarantee of sufficient funding and thus no guarantee that the mechanism will operate, much less perform this function.  Even if fully funded, moreover, such cooperation and assistance cannot substitute for enforceable, meaningful labor rights protections.

Given the D.R.-CAFTA’s weak labor rights protections, the U.S. Congress should reject the accord, making it clear that the accord will not pass Congress until it is renegotiated to adequately protect workers’ human rights.