Hard Choices, Soft Law by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Conclusion

Many of the arguments on the appropriate link between trade policy and labour standards presented here flow out of critical questions that must be answered at the outset of any such analysis relating to the normative rationale for any such linkage at all. The unfair competition and race-to-the-bottom rationales are uncompelling, even incoherent, and provide a thinly disguised cover for protectionism — particularly on the part of developed countries vis-à-vis imports from developing countries — and rightly arouse the antagonism and cynicism of developing countries, which already struggle under enough disadvantages in trade and other domains without sustaining yet one more encumbrance on their ability to develop. However, the human rights rationale for a link between trade and labour standards is much more convincing and has important implications for the scope of the link, as well as for the choice of instrument and the choice of institutional regime. While the issues that arise under this rationale with respect to choice of instrument and choice of institutional regime are far from straightforward or uncontentious, resolving these questions is rendered vastly more difficult if the foundational normative rationale for a link in the first place is not clearly determined (as many historical and contemporary debates on the link between trade and labour standards have not been).

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