文章基本信息

标题：Labour Standards as a Justification for Trade Barriers: Consumer Concerns, Protectionism and the Evidence
本地全文：下载
作者：Bakhshi, Samira ; Kerr, William A.
期刊名称：Journal of Food Distribution Research
印刷版ISSN：0047-245X
出版年度：2010
卷号：41
期号：5
页码：153-181
出版社：Food Distribution Research Society
摘要：In this article, justifications by producers (economic protectionism), consumers and social advocates (humanitarian motives) for including labour standards in international trade agreements are discussed. To date, little work has been undertaken to determine empirically whether low labour standards lead to trade distortions. This article provides some empirical evidence pertaining to this question. Consumer groups, social advocates and traditional vested interests such as labour unions have attempted to have labour standards included in WTO disciplines. In the absence of success at the WTO, the relationship between labour standards and international trade has, however, been evolving in the areas of private standards and preferential trade agreements. Given the leading role that preferential trade agreements sometimes take in establishing future directions in multilateral trade agreements and the increasing dissatisfaction with the WTO’s treatment of consumer issues in general, in the future labour standards may well work their way into multilateral trade agreements. The empirical results show that low labour standards could potentially lead to trade distortions, but more empirical work is required before a legitimate case might be made to have labour standards considered in multilateral trade negotiations.
关键词：consumers;food processing;labour standards;preferential trade agreements;trade distortion