Abstract
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiated between the EU and Canada has given rise to concerns in terms of its effects on labour standards. This article analyses the arrangements available under CETA to address risks for labour standards entailed by the Agreement and what effects can be expected of these arrangements in practice. For this purpose, labour provisions as well as exception clauses, impact assessments and the Joint Interpretative Instrument pertaining to the Agreement are considered. In the final section it is argued that none of the arrangements examined is sufficient to guarantee that CETA will not result in undercutting domestic labour standards, while several avenues are explored for improving the design of the Agreement and better safeguarding labour standards.