Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy

The ever-expanding regulatory scope of “new generation” trade agreements has created new linkages, and thus, new spheres of political conflicts opposing advocates of trade liberalization and free trade critics seeking to make globalization more socially responsible. Scholars have provided different...

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Main Author: Jean-Baptiste Velut
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cogitatio 2023-03-01
Series:Politics and Governance
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6031
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author Jean-Baptiste Velut
author_facet Jean-Baptiste Velut
author_sort Jean-Baptiste Velut
collection DOAJ
description The ever-expanding regulatory scope of “new generation” trade agreements has created new linkages, and thus, new spheres of political conflicts opposing advocates of trade liberalization and free trade critics seeking to make globalization more socially responsible. Scholars have provided different explanations to understand the determining factors behind attempts to re-embed trade, but little attention has been given to the persistence of “trade disconnects”—as opposed to trade linkages—between economic issues and social or environmental externalities that, at the domestic level, can hardly be dissociated. This article proposes to analyze the dynamics and factors of what might be described as persistent disconnects or enduring “disembeddedness” in US trade policy-making. To do so, it examines US digital trade policy and its mixed social record by comparing two issues: labor rights and data privacy. This article builds upon recent scholarship on deliberative forms of exclusion in trade policy-making to track the hidden dynamics of “non-decision-making.” It demonstrates that discursive, institutional, inter-scalar, and countermobilizing processes have restricted the terms of political participation and perpetuated a disconnect between digital trade and labor rights, by contrast with the growing trade linkages with data privacy.
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spelling doaj.art-9a17d9f14ccb40bc80ba307ca76d42e12023-03-29T09:23:00ZengCogitatioPolitics and Governance2183-24632023-03-0111124926010.17645/pag.v11i1.60312957Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade PolicyJean-Baptiste Velut0Center for Research on the English‐speaking World (CREW), Sorbonne Nouvelle University, FranceThe ever-expanding regulatory scope of “new generation” trade agreements has created new linkages, and thus, new spheres of political conflicts opposing advocates of trade liberalization and free trade critics seeking to make globalization more socially responsible. Scholars have provided different explanations to understand the determining factors behind attempts to re-embed trade, but little attention has been given to the persistence of “trade disconnects”—as opposed to trade linkages—between economic issues and social or environmental externalities that, at the domestic level, can hardly be dissociated. This article proposes to analyze the dynamics and factors of what might be described as persistent disconnects or enduring “disembeddedness” in US trade policy-making. To do so, it examines US digital trade policy and its mixed social record by comparing two issues: labor rights and data privacy. This article builds upon recent scholarship on deliberative forms of exclusion in trade policy-making to track the hidden dynamics of “non-decision-making.” It demonstrates that discursive, institutional, inter-scalar, and countermobilizing processes have restricted the terms of political participation and perpetuated a disconnect between digital trade and labor rights, by contrast with the growing trade linkages with data privacy.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6031data privacydigital labordigital platformsdigital trade policygig economylabor standardstrade linkagesus trade policyworkers’ rights
spellingShingle Jean-Baptiste Velut
Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
Politics and Governance
data privacy
digital labor
digital platforms
digital trade policy
gig economy
labor standards
trade linkages
us trade policy
workers’ rights
title Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
title_full Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
title_fullStr Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
title_full_unstemmed Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
title_short Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy
title_sort trade linkages or disconnects labor rights and data privacy in us digital trade policy
topic data privacy
digital labor
digital platforms
digital trade policy
gig economy
labor standards
trade linkages
us trade policy
workers’ rights
url https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6031
work_keys_str_mv AT jeanbaptistevelut tradelinkagesordisconnectslaborrightsanddataprivacyinusdigitaltradepolicy