Globalisation , Labour Standards and Economic Development

In recent years a few advanced countries have been advocating multilateral rules permitting punitive trade measures to be taken against countries not upholding core labour standards. The mainly developing target countries have rebutted these initiatives which they argue are protectionist, in intent and in effect. Whilst closely examining the economic arguments in this controversy, this paper is also concerned with the broader political and moral dimensions. The authors suggest that developing countries are committed to improving core and other labour standards; the reason why they are unable to implement many of these forthwith is not because of the wickedness of their governments, but essentially their economic circumstances and the structure of their economies. The paper concludes that core ILO Conventions 87 and 98 should be re-drafted to take into account the economic conditions of developing countries. JEL Codes: F10; F40; J4 Keyword: Globalisation, Labour Standards, Economic Development Acknowledgements This paper has been abridged from a longer policy monograph "The Global Labour Standards Controversy: Critical Issues for Developing Countries" which was published by the South Centre, Geneva in 2000. The paper was presented at a Panel Discussion, at the American Economic Association meetings in Atlanta in January 2002, and at the Conference on Living Wage at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in April 2002. Helpful discussions with Robert Polin are gratefully acknowledged. Singh acknowledges the assistance given by the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge. Further information about the ESRC Centre for Business Research can be found on their website: www.cbr.cam.ac.uk GLOBALISATION, LABOUR STANDARDS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT