The AFCFTA was about not only trade efficiency, but sustainable development, inclusive growth and decent work for everyone, the speaker said. Regional integration should not be at the expense of workers' rights at the heart of trade.
Hod Anyigba, executive director of the African Institute for Labor Education and Education and Chief Economist for the International Union of Trade Unions (ITUC), stressed that “trade must serve people, not just profits.”
He called for stronger labour protection, corporate accountability and due diligence in the implementation of the AFCFTA, and warned that without these protections trade liberalization could lead to unofficial employment and worsening working conditions.
Marva Corley-Coulibaly, head of globalization, competitiveness and labor standards at ILO, stressed that good work doesn't happen automatically.
“We must plan decent work, not as an afterthought, to plan our trade, industry and investment policies with great care,” she said.
Although the AFCFTA contains several labor regulations, it noted that important gaps remain, particularly when dealing with issues such as modern slavery, human trafficking and workplace safety.
She proposed the introduction of trade and sustainable development protocols to ensure that trade leads to decent work and economic justice.
The ILO's decent working toolkit, which promotes the impact of trade policy on the labour agreements and the labour market, was discussed as an invaluable tool to support private sector trade while promoting proper work.
The speaker said that the AFCFTA's labor regulations are not broad enough, and that trade agreements require the embedding of labor standards and that there is a binding commitment on ILOS core standards, including freedom of relevance, the elimination of forced labour and other issues.
They also called for further testing at SEZS to ensure labor standards were adhered to, calling them hotspots of exploitation.
