Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection

"Over the past 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. However, the ILO hardly ever sanctions violations of international labor standards and WTO rules oblige importing countries to keep their markets open for goods produced under substandard labor conditions. Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection: Why We Need to Bridge the Gap between ILO Standards and WTO Rules argues that there are two reasons for linking the rules of the multilateral trading system to international labor standards. The first is to address social dumping. GATT rules are based on two principles: 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 second reason concerns the responsibility of importing countries. Increased imports of good 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"--Unedited summary from book cover.