Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection

Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection PDF Author: Wolfgang Plasa
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498521398
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Over the last two decades or so, a number of developing countries have become important suppliers of manufactured goods. A good deal of these goods are produced under extremely poor working conditions, incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms. However, WTO rules do not allow restrictions on imports of such goods, and the ILO hardly ever sanctions violations of international labor standards. On the one hand, this leaves exporting countries free to compromise on labor protection in order to enhance their competitiveness on foreign markets. On the other hand, importing countries are obliged to keep their markets open for goods produced under substandard labor conditions. This gives rise to the question of whether the rules of the multilateral trading system should be linked to international labor standards. This study argues that there are two trade-related reasons for establishing such a link. The first one is commonly referred to as social dumping. GATT rules enshrine the principles that should govern international trade: fairness and responsibility. These principles should also apply where trade meets labor protection. Exporting goods made under substandard labor conditions is unfair and distorts trade. It would therefore be consistent to make social dumping actionable. The other reason concerns the responsibility of importing countries. Increased imports of goods produced under substandard labor conditions are an incentive for the exporting country to produce more goods under the same labor conditions, and ship them to the same importing country. This results in a proliferation of violations of labor standards, for which the importing country shares the responsibility. There is a need to adopt a link between trade and labor standards enabling the importing country to cap imports in order to escape the blame.

Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection

Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection PDF Author: Wolfgang Plasa
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498521398
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the last two decades or so, a number of developing countries have become important suppliers of manufactured goods. A good deal of these goods are produced under extremely poor working conditions, incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms. However, WTO rules do not allow restrictions on imports of such goods, and the ILO hardly ever sanctions violations of international labor standards. On the one hand, this leaves exporting countries free to compromise on labor protection in order to enhance their competitiveness on foreign markets. On the other hand, importing countries are obliged to keep their markets open for goods produced under substandard labor conditions. This gives rise to the question of whether the rules of the multilateral trading system should be linked to international labor standards. This study argues that there are two trade-related reasons for establishing such a link. The first one is commonly referred to as social dumping. GATT rules enshrine the principles that should govern international trade: fairness and responsibility. These principles should also apply where trade meets labor protection. Exporting goods made under substandard labor conditions is unfair and distorts trade. It would therefore be consistent to make social dumping actionable. The other reason concerns the responsibility of importing countries. Increased imports of goods produced under substandard labor conditions are an incentive for the exporting country to produce more goods under the same labor conditions, and ship them to the same importing country. This results in a proliferation of violations of labor standards, for which the importing country shares the responsibility. There is a need to adopt a link between trade and labor standards enabling the importing country to cap imports in order to escape the blame.

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law

Global Trade, Labour Rights and International Law PDF Author: Aneta Tyc
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000395928
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
This book provides a set of proposals for how best to guarantee effective enforcement of labour rights worldwide. The linkage between labour standards and global trade has been recurrent for some 200 years. At a time when the world is struggling to find a way out of crisis and is striving for economic growth, more than ever there is a need for up-to-date research on how to protect and promote labour rights in the global economy. This book explores the history of the field and also provides an overview of emerging trends and opportunities. It discusses the most recent problems including: the effectiveness and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the second century of its existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its potential relevance in the protection of labour rights, the effectiveness of the US and the EU Generalised System of Preferences, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) instruments on labour rights, and labour provisions in the international trade agreements concluded by the US and the EU. The book argues, inter alia, that trade agreements seem to be a useful tool to help pave the way out of the crisis and that the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) can be perceived as a model agreement and a symbol of a shift in perspective from long global supply chains to a focus on regional ones, local production, jobs and a rise in wages. The book will be essential reading for academics and students in the fields of human rights law, international labour law, industrial relations law, international sustainable development law, international economic law and international trade law. It will also be of interest to practitioners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and policy makers.

Assessment of Labour Provisions in Trade and Investment Arrangements

Assessment of Labour Provisions in Trade and Investment Arrangements PDF Author: International Labor Office
Publisher: International Labor Office
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Nearly half of trade agreements concluded in the past five years included either a labor chapter or labor provision that makes reference to international labor standards and ILO instruments. The evidence so far suggests that labor provisions have been an important tool for raising awareness and improving laws and legislations with respect to workers' rights, increasing stakeholder involvement in negotiation and implementation phases, and developing domestic institutions to better monitor and enforce labor standards. But challenges remain, particularly with respect to sustainability of impacts, coherence, and cooperative efforts. This new report, part of the Studies on Growth with Equity series, gives a full examination of the scope and effectiveness of these labor provisions.

The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law

The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019269460X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1201

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Book Description
The rules and regulations governing international trade have grown at an exponential rate in the years since the Uruguay Round agreements established the WTO in 1995. These agreements continue to act as the multilateral foundation of the body of law, which is being expanded by its own committees and in new arrangements. As the international trade law system grows, it comes under increasing scrutiny from scholars, government officials, and trade law practitioners, it raises questions about the overlap with other international legal, political, and economic regimes. This Handbook considers the system of international trade law and what it means for States, for economic systems, for other international regimes, for civil society, and for human welfare. The book opens by focusing on the regulation of international trade, considering the history, economics, and sources of international trade law, as well as the possibilities for the future. It considers the intersection of international trade law with States, the economic and institutional context of the world trading system, the framework of its substantive law, and the balance of trade objectives versus ethical responsibilities. The book concludes by offering analysis of new trade law developments in the agricultural, digital, and financial sectors, as well as outlining the settlement of trade law disputes both in the WTO and bilateral/regional trade agreements. The second edition broadens the scope of analysis beyond the WTO, analysing regional trade agreements and preferential trade arrangements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Canada-EU Trade Agreement. The new edition also considers developments within the WTO such as in the area of agricultural export subsidies, and the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership

The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership PDF Author: Jorge A. Huerta-Goldman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316732169
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 727

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Book Description
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership among eleven key nations of the Pacific Rim has already expanded trade and economic cooperation among the Parties. It also serves to encourage political cooperation among them and has served as a model for future 'wide and deep' free trade agreements. The chapters of this book will provide readers with a detailed understanding of the CPTPP's coverage, including provisions relating to tariff elimination, customs rules of origin, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, telecommunications, intellectual property, investment and investor–state arbitration, financial and other services, government procurement, state-owned enterprises, electronic commerce and digital trade, small and medium-sized enterprises, competition law, labor and environmental protection, dispute settlement, and many others. No international lawyer, economist, trade negotiator, or enterprise can afford not to take advantage of the opportunities for business that the CPTPP offers. This book has been written by CPTPP negotiators, experts, and practitioners.

Security, Trade, and Environmental Policy

Security, Trade, and Environmental Policy PDF Author: Charles Bonser
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461543991
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Center for European Integration, University of Bonn, Germany Instituto Nacional de Administradio, Lisbon, Portugal Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milan, Italy University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Danish School of Public Administration, Frederiksberg, Denmark Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione, Rome, Italy The papers presented in this volume were originally presented at the Paris and Bloomington conferences. They were subsequently updated, where necessary, to include new information or circumstances. Plans call for future colloquia of the group to publish their results. For current information on the consortium being planned, visit the web page:. Charles F. Bonser Dean Emeritus School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana U. S. A. SECTION I: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE UNITED STATES INTRODUCTION, SECTION I Charles F. Bonser Dean Emeritus of Public and Environmental Affairs Sclwol Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana It is clear that the collapse of the Soviet Empire at the beginning of this decade has led to what President Bush called, at that time, a "New World Order. " Although no one as yet has defined exactly what that means, it obviously includes the fact that the United States has emerged as the only true super power in the world, at least militarily. If there were any doubts to that fact, the events of the last decade removed them. In the 1991 Gulf War, the U. S.

Employment Protection Deregulation and Labor Shares in Advanced Economies

Employment Protection Deregulation and Labor Shares in Advanced Economies PDF Author: Gabriele Ciminelli
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484373723
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Labor market deregulation, intended to boost productivity and employment, is one plausible, yet little studied, driver of the decline in labor shares that took place across most advanced economies since the early 1990s. This paper assesses the impact of job protection deregulation in a sample of 26 advanced economies over the period 1970-2015, using a newly constructed dataset of major reforms to employment protection legislation for regular contracts. We apply the local projection method to estimate the dynamic response of the labor share to our reform events at both the country and the country-industry levels. For the latter, we employ a differences-in-differences identification strategy using two identifying assumptions grounded in theory—namely that job protection deregulation should have larger negative effects in industries characterized by (i) a higher “natural” propensity to adjust the workforce, and (ii) a lower elasticity of substitution between capital and labor. We find a statistically significant, economically large and robust negative effect of deregulation on the labor share. In particular, illustrative back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that job protection deregulation may have contributed about 15 percent to the average labor share decline in advanced economies. Together with existing evidence regarding the macroeconomic gains from job protection and other labor market reforms, our results also point to the need for policymakers to address efficiency-equity trade-offs when designing such reforms.

Importing Into the United States

Importing Into the United States PDF Author: U. S. Customs and Border Protection
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781304100061
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Explains process of importing goods into the U.S., including informed compliance, invoices, duty assessments, classification and value, marking requirements, etc.

Losing the Global Development War

Losing the Global Development War PDF Author: John Warren Head
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004161880
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
This book offers a new perspective in examining the key global economic organizations - the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank (and its regional counterparts), and the World Trade Organization. Aimed at ordinary informed readers, the text draws upon the author's many years of familiarity with these organizations to evaluate them from a legal and policy perspective, touching on issues of "mission creep," "democracy deficit," and more. The book depicts such issues as the central struggles in a "Global Development War" that is now being lost because of certain ideological and institutional failings that currently afflict the global institutions. That war can be won, the author asserts, only by adopting an ideology of liberal, intelligent, participatory, multilateral, and sustainable human development.

Non-Economic Objectives in WTO Law

Non-Economic Objectives in WTO Law PDF Author: Stefan Zleptnig
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047440951
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This volume examines the complex relationship between economic and non-economic objectives in WTO law. It discusses how non-economic objectives (such as the protection of public morals, life and health, environment, or human rights) can serve as justification for trade-restrictive measures normally prohibited under WTO law. The relevant non-economic grounds of justification are analysed, as well as the substantive and procedural requirements which restrain the use of trade-restrictive measures taken for non-economic purposes. The issues covered by this book also have wider systemic implications for the WTO. Only if the WTO can demonstrate that it is not just concerned about free trade, but respects non-economic objectives as well, is it likely to remain a sustainable and legitimate form of governance.