Chapter 19 is the labour chapter of the agreement. My comments are that while the inclusion of a chapter about labour in the TPP is a step forward, it isn't a meaningful one because the standards that a country must adopt and put in place are so ill defined as to be incapable of enforcement. While the labour provisions of the TPP are ostensibly enforceable, a country complaining about the failure of another to respect its obligations under the agreement must establish that there's an ongoing and recurring pattern of non-compliance, which is a far different standard from what applies to the enforcement of other provisions of the TPP.
There is ultimately nothing against which a country's efforts can be measured, because in respect of core labour rights, the authors of the TPP pointedly rejected including compliance with the conventions, rather than simply the broad principles of the declaration.
With respect to conditions of work, not only is there no floor, but under the TPP a country may derogate from what limited protections it puts in place, other than in free-trade zones. We don't have any of those in Canada. So while—