A/HRC/30/44 improved labour standards, an independent judiciary, a clean environment and the right not to be subjected to forced resettlement. Moreover, there is a legitimate concern that international investment agreements might aggravate the problem of extreme poverty,17 foreign debt renegotiation, financial regulation and the rights of indigenous peoples, minorities, persons with disabilities and older persons and other vulnerable groups. 10. The Working Group on business and human rights has stressed in its reports that the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights stipulate in principles 8 and 9 that “States should ensure that governmental departments, agencies and other State-based institutions that shape business practices are aware of and observe the State’s human rights obligations” and that “States should maintain adequate domestic policy space to meet their human rights obligations when pursuing business-related policy objectives with other States or business enterprises, for instance through investment treaties or contracts”. Accordingly, all international investment agreements under negotiation should include a clear provision stipulating that in case of conflict between the human rights obligations of a State and those under other treaties, human rights conventions prevail. 11. The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an example of an agreement that has led to relocation of manufacturing industries, resulting in loss of employment in the United States (estimated at 850,000 jobs) and the proliferation of assembly centres in Mexico, known as maquiladoras,18 where labour costs are lower and social protection below ILO standards. NAFTA “provided investors with a unique set of guarantees designed to stimulate foreign direct investment and the movement of factories within the hemisphere … . Furthermore, no protections were contained in the core of the agreement to maintain labor or environmental standards. As a result, NAFTA tilted the economic playing field in favor of investors, and against workers and the environment”.19 Several international investment agreements are currently being negotiated, mostly in secret, including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trade in Services Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.20 12. Numerous scholars and Nobel prize laureates in economics have already signalled the dangers to democratic governance and human rights. Stiglitz states: “These agreements 16 17 18 19 20 Devinder Sharma, “‘Free’ trade killing farmers in India”, November 2007, available from www.bilaterals.org/?free-trade-killing-farmers-in. www.cepal.org/es/publicaciones/3839-proteccion-del-derecho-humano-al-agua-y-arbitrajes-deinversionhttp://cap-net-esp.org/document/document/181/agua_y_saneamiento_ tratados_de_protecci%C3%B3n_a_las_inversiones.pdf. www.globalresearch.ca/the-free-trade-agreements-the-asia-europe-peoples-forum-call-toaction/5416888?print=1. See www.hrw.org/news/1996/08/17/mexicos-maquiladoras-abuses-against-women-workers; sdmaquila.blogspot.ch/2010/02/maquiladoras-101-english.html; and www.researchgate.net. publication/266820089_Human_rights_violations_in_the_Maquiladora_Industry. Robert E. Scott, “The high price of ‘free’ trade: NAFTA’s failure has cost the United States jobs across the nation”, Briefing paper No. 147, Economic Policy Institute, 17 November 2003, available from www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_bp147. See www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/2-Trade-Relationships-andAgreements/RCEP/; donttradeourlivesaway.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/press-statement-civil-societyraises-major-concerns-on-indias-engagement-with-the-massive-rcep-trade-deal/; and trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/december/tradoc_118238.pdf. The European Free Trade Association is also negotiating free trade agreements: see www.asean.org/images/2012/documents/Guiding%20Principles%20 and%20Objectives%20for%20Negotiating%20the%20Regional%20Comprehensive%20Economic%2 0Partnership.pdf. 7