In 1998, the International Labor Organization (ILO) identified four standards as “fundamental principles and rights at work” that all countries should promote, whatever their level of development. They are:

• Freedom of association and the right to organize
• Freedom from forced labor
• Elimination of child labor that is harmful to the child or interferes with schooling
• Nondiscrimination in employment

Some labor standards, such as wage rates and health and safety regulations, must vary with the country’s level of development and local living standards. Setting such standards too high can raise labor costs to a point where production is uncompetitive, thereby limiting employment.

Advocates argue that including labor standards in trade agreements would prevent producers worldwide from cutting costs at the expense of worker rights. Opponents fear that labor standards would undermine job creation in some countries by increasing the cost of production or by serving as an excuse for protectionism in the U.S.

Core labor standards are essential to well-functioning democracies and market economies; they allow workers to negotiate standards in other areas.

There is no evidence that higher core standards affect developing countries’ ability to compete or that countries with lower labor standards create more jobs, attract more foreign direct investment, or grow faster. However, in some developing countries, governments, employers, and multinational buyers try to compete by ignoring labor and other laws. For example, some countries restrict core labor standards in “export processing zones,” and some ignore the illegal firing of workers who were let go for trying to organize unions.

Eight legally binding ILO conventions are related to the core labor standards, and 99 ILO member countries have ratified all eight.

• The U.S. has ratified two conventions—one on the abolition of forced labor and one on the elimination of the “worst forms” of child labor.
• The U.S. has not ratified two broader conventions on forced and child labor or any of the conventions related to freedom of association or nondiscrimination in employment, partly because many U.S. labor laws are made at the state level.
• Nine countries have ratified three or fewer of these conventions: Afghanistan, Armenia, Burma, China, Laos, Oman, Qatar, Solomon Islands, Somalia, and the United States.