Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment On The Depth Of Labor Standards In Regional Trade Agreements

The problem of linking trade with labor standards has a long history.At present,the debate on this issue at the global level has fallen into a "prisoner’s dilemma." At the regional level,the United States and the European Union actively advocate linking trade with labor standards.Whether it is the United States attaching labor cooperation agreements to its regional trade agreements or directly writing labor clauses,or the EU’s generalized system of preferences for developing countries,they all reflect the power-led cooperation.At the national level,as the process of globalization accelerates,the division of labor standards in developing countries is inevitable.The United States formally includes labor standards in bilateral free trade agreements.Compare the capabilities of the United States and other countries,this approach embodies a very typical asymmetric cooperation.Looking at the negotiation process and development trend of international labor standards in free trade agreement negotiations,there may be more ways of linking free trade agreements with labor standards in the future.Therefore,this article starts from the perspective of the depth of labor standard clauses in free trade agreements,and explores the relationship between the depth of labor standard clauses in free trade agreements and foreign direct investment.Originally self-invested from 2009 to 2017 in a national foreign direct investment flow data to classify and statistics the specific labor standard policies and regulations included in regional trade agreements,and empirically test the level of these labor standard Policy clauses in regional trade agreements.The depth of the impact of foreign direct investment in and outside the OECD.As a result of experience,the depth of labor increases standard policies in regional trade agreements is not conducive to intensive marginal foreign direct investment,but it is conducive to deferring marginal foreign direct investment.Among them,the increase in the depth of labor standards related to political rights in regional trade agreements has a certain promotion effect on the intensive marginal foreign direct investment,the extended marginal foreign direct investment,and the total bilateral foreign direct investment.The increase in the depth of labor standard clauses related to economic rights in regional trade agreements is not conducive to the intensive marginal foreign direct investment,there is no clear impact on the total amount of foreign direct investment and bilateral foreign direct investment.This article also finds that the depth of labor standard clauses in "North-North" and "South-North" regional trade agreements has a heterogeneous impact on foreign direct investment;It was also found that the depth of labor standards-related provisions in North-North and North-South RTAs had different effects on FDI.The article concludes with some strategic suggestions,such as improving the legal system construction,improving professional skills and employ ability,and promoting employment;strengthen the supervision of labor in regional trade agreements The actual implementation of the standard clauses;Work for China’s right to participate in setting labor standards;China must abide by principles of alienation in search of similarities and proactively implement a series of policy claims to develop regional cooperation with countries of different levels of economic development.