Download or read book The Simple Economics of Labor Standards and the GATT written by Kyle Bagwell and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: How should the issue of domestic labor standards be handled in the GATT/ WTO? This question is part of a broader debate over the appropriate scope of international economic institutions such as the GATT, where member-countries are considering proposals for a new round of n3 negotiations that would move beyond GATT's focus on trade barriers and cover domestic' issues such as labor and environmental standards and regulatory reform which have traditionally been treated with benign neglect' within GATT. Such proposals encroach on traditional limits of national sovereignty, and they raise fundamental challenges to the existing structure of international economics relations among sovereign states. In this paper we consider several approaches to the treatment of domestic labor standards within a trade agreement. We use simple economic arguments to show that, while the benign neglect of labor standards within a trade agreement will result in inefficient choices for both trade barriers and labor standards, direct negotiations over labor standards are not required to reach efficient outcomes. Specifically, we describe two tafiff negotiating structures that deliver efficient outcomes while preserving varying degrees of national sovereignty over policy choices. A first approach combines tariff negotiations with subsequent Kemp-Wan adjustments, under which each government is free to alter unilaterally its policy mix so long as trade volumes are not affected. A second approach adds to the first, under which afte tariff negotiations each governement can alter unilaterally its tariff, but its trading partner is then free to issue a tariff response to stabilize export prices. We show that both approaches deliver govts. to the efficiency frontier but that the second approach provides govts. with greater sovereignty over policy choices and bears a strong resemblance to the negotiating procedures in G.

Download or read book The Simple Economics of Labor and the GATT written by Kyle Bagwell and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Simple Economics of Labor Standars and the Gatt written by Kyle Bagwell and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book International Labor Standards written by Kaushik Basu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the controversial call for international labor standards, seeking to productively further this debate by considering the economic implications and history of these standards. A result of an initiative by Professor Kaushik Basu in his capacity as member of the Expert Group of Development Issues (EGDI) sponsored by the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the contributions are based on discussions at a seminar held in Stockholm in August 2001. Compiling the best research in the field, this book provides a solid basis for policy decisions, while also serving as a challenging text for students in trade, development, and labor economics. Analyzes the economic implications and history of international labor standards. Productively furthers the debate about intervening with international labor standardsStems from a seminar organized through the Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI), sponsored by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Download or read book International Labor Standards and International Trade written by Mr.Stephen S. Golub and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1997-04-01 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews controversies regarding linkage of international trade and labor standards. Pressures for international harmonization of labor standards arise in the context of increased trade between countries with large disparities in wages, and also reflect the history of labor standards. A critical distinction is made between standards related to fundamental human rights and those related to employment conditions. The main conclusion is that trade sanctions to enforce labor standards should not be an option, but that international agreements on core labor standards, with voluntary compliance, may, apart from being worthwhile on ethical grounds, defuse calls for protection.

Download or read book Developing Countries in the GATT Legal System written by Robert E. Hudec and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this reissued edition of the classic work Developing Countries in the GATT Legal System, Robert E. Hudec's clear insight on the situation of developing countries within the international trade system is once again made available. Hudec is regarded as one of the most prominent commentators on the evolution of the current international trade regime, and this long out-of-print book offers his analysis of the dynamics playing out between developed and developing nations. A significant contribution when the book was first published, this work continues to serve as a thoughtful and important guide to how current and future trade policy must seriously adapt to the demands of the developing world. This new edition includes a new introduction by J. Michael Finger that examines Hudec's work to understand how the GATT got into its current historical-institutional predicament and the lasting impact of his work on current research on international trade systems.

Download or read book International Trade and Labor Standards written by Christian Barry and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors examine how the international trading system can be reformed to support efforts by poor countries to promote the well-being of their peoples.

Download or read book Contributions to the Economics of International Labor Standards written by Arnab K Basu and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As global production has become dispersed worldwide, so have concerns for the plight of workers employed in the world factory. Standard economic intuitions prescribe sharp tradeoffs between the worker-level benefits that a job confers, and the number of such jobs that are ultimately made available. Such quality-quantity tradeoffs have taken center stage in the global debate on potential benefits and costs of legalizing and enforcing international labor standards. This volume organizes and presents a number of new developments in the economics of international labors standards. The first part of this volume explores a series of labor market institutions particularly in developing country labor markets so far unexplored in international labor standards debate. These include the presence of middlemen market power, the persistence of interlinked debt and labor market exploitations, and the origins of two-tiered labor markets. These studies unveil the determinants of workers' well-being and the associated justification for labor market policy interventions when institutions are lopsided favoring contractors, moneylender-cum-employers, and/or select workers blessed with "good" jobs. The second part explores the effectiveness of policy intervention by explicitly recognizing policy implementation challenges. These include coordination failure in the international context, imperfect enforcement and compliance of national labor regulations, and the limits of market-driven fair trade programs. In doing so, these studies shed light on the pitfalls of wholesale international labor standards prescriptions, and advocate instead in favor of case-by-case approach which duly recognize the specific ways in which the labor market deviate from standard assumptions, and the realities of policy implementation and enforcement difficulties.

Download or read book The Economics of the World Trading System written by Kyle Bagwell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-08-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World trade is governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO sets rules of conduct for the international trade of goods and services and for intellectual property rights, provides a forum for multinational negotiations to resolve trade problems, and has a formal mechanism for dispute settlement. It is the primary institution working, through rule-based bargaining, at freeing trade. In this book, Kyle Bagwell and Robert Staiger provide an economic analysis and justification for the purpose and design of the GATT/WTO. They summarize their own research, discuss the major features of the GATT agreement, and survey the literature on trade agreements. Their focus on the terms-of-trade externality is particularly original and ties the book together. Topics include the theory of trade agreements, the origin and design of the GATT and the WTO, the principles of reciprocity, the most favored nation principle, terms-of-trade theory, enforcement, preferential trade agreements, labor and environmental standards, competition policy, and agricultural export subsidies.

Download or read book Social Dimensions of U S Trade Policies written by Alan Verne Deardorff and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to this volume include numerous members of the trade policy community who analyze and discuss the salient social dimensions of U.S. trade policies. These issues include the effects of trade on wage inequality; trade and immigration policy; U.S. trade adjustment assistance policies; the effects of NAFTA on environmental quality; the role of labor standards in U.S. trade policies; the economics of labor standards and the GATT; issues of child labor; and the role of interest groups in the design and implementation of U.S. trade policies. Chapter authors are Kyle Bagwell, Claude Barfield, George J. Borjas, Drusilla K. Brown, Alan V. Deardorff, Nancy Dunne, Gary S. Fields, John Kirton, Mike Jendrzejczyk, Phyllis Shearer Jones, Edward E. Leamer, Robert Naiman, Gregory K. Schoepfle, Robert W. Staiger, and Robert M. Stern. Commenters are Steve Beckman, Jagdish Bhagwati, Alan V. Deardorff, Avinash Dixit, Pharis Harvey, David van Hoogstraten, John H. Jackson, Lawrence Mishel, Jack Otero, J. David Richardson, Dani Rodrik, Mark Silbergeld, and T. N. Srinivasan. Alan V. Deardorff and Robert M. Stern are Professors of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan.

Download or read book Handbook of Trade Policy for Development written by Arvid Lukauskas and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 1024 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many textbooks devoted to international trade but few volumes that survey trade theory, policy, and negotiations in a concise, up-to-date manner from an interdisciplinary perspective. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the issues that dominate both academic discourse and the policymaking arena in the field of international trade, bringing to bear the insights of economics, law, and political science. It also stands out by virtue of its emphasis on the development implications of trade, an increasingly useful perspective given the deepening liberalization of developing and emerging market economies and their growing importance in the world economy. The volume examines the full range of trade policy topics that dominate contemporary debates, such as rules of origin, trade in services, competition, public procurement, and trade facilitation, plus emergent controversial topics like trade-related labour standards and environmental issues. It analyses the international trade architecture and the institutional and practical aspects of policymaking and negotiations at the unilateral, multilateral, and regional level, as well as the effects of trade on economic growth, inequality, and poverty. It also explores the sharp increase in the number of preferential trade agreements and their significance for the global trade system. The treatment of each issue is rigorous, yet highly accessible to anyone with a basic background in economics, law, and international political economy.

Download or read book Working Paper Series written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Assessment of Labour Provisions in Trade and Investment Arrangements written by International Labor Office and published by International Labor Office. This book was released on 2016 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Brookings Trade Forum 2000 written by Susan M. Collins and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This annual series provides comprehensive analysis on current and emerging issues of international trade and macroeconomics. Practitioners and academics contribute to each volume, with papers that provide an in-depth look at a particular topic. The third edition focuses on policy challenges for the next millennium. Contents include: "Fixing for Your Life" Guillermo Calvo and Carmen Reinhart (University of Maryland) "Verifiability and the Vanishing Intermediate Exchange Rate Regime" Jeffrey Frankel (Harvard University), Sergio Schmukler, and Luis Servén (World Bank) "Short- and Long-Run Integration: Do Capital Controls Matter?" Graciela Kaminsky (George Washington University) and Sergio Schmukler (World Bank) "The Role and Effectiveness of the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism" John H. Jackson (Georgetown University) "Regulatory Protectionism, Developing Nations, and a Two-Tier World Trade System" Richard E. Baldwin (Graduate Institute of International Studies) "Trade Policy: What's Next?" W. Bowman Cutter (Warburg Pincus), Richard Haass (Brookings Institution), and Daniel Tarullo (Georgetown University)

Download or read book Reconciling International Trade and Labor Protection written by Wolfgang Plasa and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The World Trading System written by John Howard Jackson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the first edition of The World Trading System was published in 1989, the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations has been completed, and most governments have ratified and are in the process of implementing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In the Uruguay Round, more than 120 nations negotiated for over eight years, to produce a document of some 26,000 pages. This new edition of The World Trading System takes account of these and other developments. Like the first edition, however, its treatment of topical issues is grounded in the fundamental legal, constitutional, institutional, and political realities that mold trade policy. Thus the book continues to serve as an introduction to the study of trade law and policy. Two basic premises of The World Trading System are that economic concerns are central to foreign affairs, and that national economies are growing more interdependent. The author presents the economic principles of international trade policy and then examines how they operate under real- world constraints. In particular, he examines the extremely elaborate system of rules that governs international economic relations. Until now, the bulk of international trade policy has addressed trade in goods; issues inadequately addressed by policy include trade in services, intellectual property rights, certain investment measures, and agriculture. The author highlights the tension between legal rules, designed to create predictability and stability, and the governments need to make exceptions to solve short-term problems. He also looks at weaknesses of international trade policy, especially as it applies to developing countries and economies in transition. He concludes with a look at issues that will shape international trade policy well into the twenty-first century.

Download or read book International Trade written by Luis Rivera-Batiz and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title offers an integrated account of strategic trade analysis, combined with empirical evidence and new results. It addresses the need to synthesize and integrate the new advances in a field that has become a key element of policy discussions.