The EU as a partner of ILO in trade negotiations. Explaining labour reform in Vietnam

Can EU comprehensive trade agreements effectively promote international labour standards, despite their soft enforcement rules? And if so, under what conditions? This paper addresses these questions by focusing on a hard case study, namely Vietnam’s ratification in 2019 of the ILO Convention 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining. Such a ratification is an epochal change for a mono-party regime lacking recognition of independent trade unions. This paper shows that the EU has emerged as a key partner of ILO in promoting international law in Vietnam and explains such a result from a political economy perspective. This case study provides insights into the extent to which a trade partner is dependent upon international trade increases the leverage of the EU, and especially the European Parliament, and ultimately affects the ability of the EU to emerge as a normative power through trade.