Documents trade policy 118 results

"In this important volume, nine studies identify the complexities of protecting labour rights in a mobile global economy by assessing the role of ILO standards, as well as public, private, and public-private initiatives, in countering the potentially negative impact of international trade and investment flows on labour rights. The editor's powerfully summative introduction and conclusion pinpoint the crucial issues confronting labour law in this context, highlighting the need for policy coordination and coherence. Among the topics and issues raised in the book are the following:

empirical studies of migrant workers employed in global supply chains;

international recruitment intermediaries;

governance through hierarchy versus governance through networks;

trade sustainable impact assessments (SIAs);

the so-called governance triangle – the state, companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs);

corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; and

the OECD's national contact points (NCPs).

Various authors focus on such features as the difficulties of monitoring labour conditions in a supply-chain system, the multiple forms of disadvantage often faced by supply-chain workers, enforcement and jurisdictional roadblocks, and pitfalls caused by prioritizing quantitative modelling at the expense of qualitative analysis. Authors and editors both offer recommendations on ways to not only hold multinationals responsible for the negative externalities of their actions but also provide building blocks for"

"The EU has been ambivalent regarding improvements to development objectives. Its main concern has been meeting trade policy goals, laid down in trade negotiations. Increasingly, the EU is choosing to define and defend the development-and-trade nexus within the trade liberalization paradigm, as development objectives are embedded in enforceable free trade agreements. While this could boost the role of social clauses or human rights provisions, the EU restrains itself from using its direct power on matters relating to social, environmental and human rights, resulting in subservient and vaguely defined development objectives."

"Palpable tension continues at the intersection of tobacco control and trade policy. Through consideration of four major tobacco control-related trade disputes, we suggest how to empower public health proponents in the face of entrenched economic policymaking norms. We argue that a more effective pro-tobacco control message should: (a) seek to be broadly consistent with core principles of the world trading system, (b) boldly assert countries' international commitments to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, (c) marshal deep scientific evidence, and (d) come from a broad range of actors, including from low- and middle-income countries as well as from other trade policy community members."