This article examines how the design of preferential trade agreements regarding labor provisions influences state compliance with collective labor rights. We argue that PTAs combining highly enforceable or promotional features with highly specific references to labor provisions are partly effective in increasing state compliance with labor rights. We further argue that governments act strategically by choosing to substitute one type of abuse for the other: the presence of repression with regard to freedom of association should reduce the probability to use repressive policy with respect to collective bargaining. Building on Kucera's template, we collect a new dataset on compliance with labor rights around the world for all countries in 2012 and for a sub-sample of 40 countries since 1990. In line with expectations, our results show that PTAs including highly specific and highly enforceable and/or promotional labor standards reduce violations of collective bargaining rights but not of freedom of association.
