Trade and Labor Standards: A Strategy for Developing Countries

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Trade and Labor Standards: A Strategy for Developing Countries

Conventional wisdom holds that integrating labor and social issues into international trade regimes will be one of the very hardest trade policy challenges to resolve. Recent developments present a new strategic opportunity for developing countries to link trade with domestic policies that promote poverty alleviation, more equitable income distribution, and better working conditions.

By Ms. Sandra Polaski

Published on Jan 9, 2003

Source: Carnegie

Conventional wisdom holds that integrating labor and social issues into international trade regimes will be one of the very hardest trade policy challenges to resolve. In Trade and Labor Standards: A Strategy for Developing Countries, Sandra Polaski argues, to the contrary, that recent developments present a new strategic opportunity for developing countries to link trade with domestic policies that promote poverty alleviation, more equitable income distribution, and better working conditions. This linkage can generate greater market access for developing countries and at the same time disseminate the benefits of trade liberalization more broadly to their citizens, creating a true win-win outcome.

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About the Author
Sandra Polaski is senior associate in the Trade, Equity, and Development Project at the Carnegie Endowment. She served from 1999–2002 as the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the senior official handling labor matters in U.S. foreign policy.

About the Author

Ms. Sandra Polaski

Former Senior Associate, Director, Trade, Equity and Development Program

Until April 2002, Polaski served as the U.S. Secretary of State’s Special Representative for International Labor Affairs, the senior State Department official dealing with such matters.

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Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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