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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Trade policy and labour standards: general perspectives and implications for South Africa
Authors:Kohler, Marcel R.
Brand, Janet O. Bruce
Year:2002
Periodical:South African Journal of Economics
Volume:70
Issue:5
Pages:932-954
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:international labour conventions
trade policy
External link:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2002.tb00052.x/pdf
Abstract:Trade negotiators, particularly those from developed countries, have made numerous attempts to introduce a social clause into the rules-based trading system administered by the WTO. This paper examines the question of whether trade policy should be used to enforce internationally recognized labour standards and whether the enforcement of such standards will reduce poverty in developing countries generally, and in South Africa in particular. Its main argument is that such a use of trade policy is simply a new form of protectionism. Trade policy is not a 'first-best' solution in pursuing and addressing social objectives. By using trade policy, developing countries are deprived of the very economic growth needed to encourage the adoption of higher labour standards. Basic workers' rights are lowest and poverty highest in African countries, rural China and rural India. It makes better sense to think of extending the benefits of trade participation and liberalization to these countries, by addressing the causes of their economic isolation, than to think of limiting or re-engineering the process of global growth, by linking labour standards to trade policy. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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