It allows us to engage other countries from a standpoint of mutual interest, not from a standpoint of arrogant U.S. demands that they come up to our supposedly high labor standards. Indeed, labor rights abuses do not only arise in developing countries. They exist here in the United States too. Rampant sweatshops and migrant worker mistreatment also run up against international fair labor standards. So it's not enough that other countries come up to U.S. standards as a condition of entry to the U.S. market.
International norms can also raise American standards.
The agreement then provides an accessible system of cross-border complaints by private parties to scrutinize a country's performance in enforcing its labor law. The committee's recommendations are nonbinding, but they will force a public debate and press governments and employers to respond to the independent experts' report and recommendations. In May, a coalition of Mexican trade unions and farmworker organizations filed a wide-ranging complaint alleging failure of U.S. labor law to protect workers' rights in the Washington State apple industry. In a late 1997 case, state labor authorities in Mexico at first refused to recognize the election victory of an independent union in a maquiladora auto parts plant named Han Young, a Hyundai supplier. The international support campaign continues as workers struggle for a contract.