Labor Standards and Development in the Global Economy

摘要

On December 12-13, 1988, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the U.S. Department of Labor in cooperation with the Overseas Development Council sponsored an international symposium to examine the relationship between labor standards and economic and social development in the global economy. The symposium took place in the context of concerns in the United States and Europe that expansion of developing-country manufacturing exports might erode labor standards in industrialized countries. The purpose of the symposium was to advance the international debate stemming from disagreements between advanced and developing nations regarding how to promote simultaneously labor standards and economic development. It hoped to stimulate creative, but practical, thinking about a range of critical, intertwined issues: the relationship between labor standards and development in individual countries; the effect of trade between countries at vastly different stages of development on labor standards in those countries; the role and limits of active public promotion of labor standards; and the role of international institutions in protecting labor standards or creating an environment conducive to their protection. The volume contains edited versions of papers and comments presented at the conference by fourteen experts from around the world, the majority of them from developing countries.