Recently, the International Labor Organization (ILO) launched an online facility on labor provisions in trade agreements (LP Hub) at: https://www.ilo.org/ LPhub/. The LP Hub provides a systemic, comprehensive of labor-related provisions in more than 100 regional trade agreements in approximately 140 economies around the world.

According to the Permanent Representative of Viet Nam in Geneva (Switzerland), LP Hub is aimed at policy makers, technical experts, workers’ representatives, employers, as well as other individuals and organizations of interest, to meet the growing demand for a central set of databases for information retrieval, research, and legal analysis.

Labor-related provisions are obligations set forth in trade agreements to protect and promote workers' rights through various forms of cooperation and dialogue between business associations, business organizations and the general public. About a quarter of trade agreements signed in the last decade (2011-2020) contain labor-related provisions, while between 2001-2010 compared with only 22% of those signed between 2001-2010.

The ILO's launch of the LP Hub forms the basis for a more people-centered approach to trade policy. The ILO's Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work (2019) calls on countries to make labor a central goal of trade policy and a target for trade in support of sustainable development, supporting economic recovery after the covid-19 pandemic.

According to Martha Newton, ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy, the LP Hub will help promote more inclusive trade by raising awareness of emerging areas of provisions related to labor such as forced labour, anti-discrimination, gender equality, given that trade as well as labor-related provisions are correlated with the broader sector of trade in the future, including environment and technology.

LP Hub users can search and analyze labor-related provisions by trading partners and over time, visualize data and trends, learn about monitoring and implementation mechanisms, as well like download other relevant information.

Up to now, Viet Nam has signed and implemented 3 new-generation free trade agreements with high standard provisions on labor, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ocean (CPTPP), the Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and the European Union (EVFTA), and the Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UKVFTA). In order to effectively implement labor commitments in these FTAs, Vietnam has carried out many activities, including amending the Labor Code, joining a number of fundamental ILO Conventions (incl. No. 105 on abolition of forced labor, No. 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining). The Vietnamese Prime Minister approved of the Implementation Plan of the ILO Convention No. 105 in Decision No. 673/QD-TTg dated May 7, 2021, and approved of the Implementation Plan of the ILO Convention No. 98 in Decision No. 2234/ Decision-TTg dated December 30, 2021.