Date of publication: January 9, 2009
Source: Inside US Trade
Author: Brian Scheid
Excerpt from article:
With Peru and the Bush administration stepping up their efforts to implement the U.S.-Peru bilateral free trade agreement, the House Ways and Means Committee has weighed in with new questions on whether Peru has implemented the relevant FTA labor rights provisions, according to sources.
Ways and Means has expressed doubts to the Bush administration and the Peruvian government that Peru’s labor laws as they now stand fully reflect the obligations of the May 10, 2007 agreement between the Bush administration and congressional Democrats, these sources said. So far, Ways and Means has not received satisfactory answers, they said.
Key among the issues raised by Ways and Means is whether the Peruvian labor laws passed this summer live up to the commitment that employers will not be able to use subcontracting arrangements to circumvent labor rights obligations and the right to unionize, they said...