International Trade, Development and Labor

Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss various aspects of the moral importance international trade. There are many such aspects, including efficiency in production, development facilitation, weak state’s vulnerability and strong state’s predation and equality of opportunity for employment and income. I defend a rules-governed multi-lateral trade regime that links a commitment to core labor standards to enjoyment of the benefits of liberalized access to markets. Additionally, I argue that requirements to liberalize trade in any such regime should be asymmetrical, with greater leeway given to protectionism in the developing world. In Section II, I discuss the extent to which free trade can be justified as a means for efficient production. Section III argues that protectionist policies in rich industrialized countries retard the development of poor countries. Section IV surveys the claims made by some economists that the socio-economic development of developing and underdeveloped societies requires state intervention to support and protect infant industry. In Section V, I argue that a rules-based multi-lateral regime is superior on anti-predation grounds to a series of bilateral agreements. Section VI argues that although rules that permit protectionism in rich and powerful countries violate the principle of fair equality of opportunity for employment and income, a multi-lateral trade regime that links liberalized market access to the observance of core labor standards can be morally justified.