Issue Of Labor Standards In Trade Liberalization Under Study

Labor standards are some principles and rules dealing with the labor relationship. Labor standards have a wide range. As early as the nineteenth century, the America had begun to pay attention to them from the perspective of trade. With the upsurge of the waves of trade liberalization after the world war II, the problem began more prominent. The debate between the developed and developing countries on whether the GATT and WTO should include labor standards has never been stopped. Furthermore, labor standards are also mingling with trade at the non-government level. As a WTO member, China will inevitably face the problem of labor standards. Accordingly, the studies on the trade and labor standards will have great significance in theory and reality for us.The dissertation, named as "the studies on the labor standards on the context of trade liberalization", studies the labor standards from the perspective of relationship between trade and labor, and mainly discusses the relationship between labor standards and WTO. The author compares China's legislation on labor with international core labor standards in the end, with a view to putting forward some proposals on the perfection of China' legislation on labor. The dissertation is divided into four parts as follows:Part I: "the general introduction to labor standards" .It concludes the definition of labor standards and introduction to the core labor standards. The author is of the view that labor standards are the scope and degree of the workers' rights recognize by the international law or a country's domestic law. The core labor standards, designed by OECD, conclude standards as follows: freedom of association and right to organize, elimination of forced labor, equality in work and elimination of child labor. They are also contained in the eight fundamental labor conventions of ILO.Part II: "the evolution of the problem of trade and labor standards". In this part, the author reviews the history of tradeand labor standards and then summarizes two questions which are in hot discussion. The first is that whether low costs of product due to low labor standards constitute a unfair competition in international trade, and the second is that whether trade sanctions should be used to promote the labor standards in other countries.Part III: "The labor standards and WTO". As the core part of the dissertation, there are three parts under this subtitle. The first is that the formal link between the labor standards and trade challenge the multilateral trading system of WTO. Except for the provision of "relating to the products of prison labor" provided for in GATT XX: e, we have no other explicit legal basis for such link. Then the author analyzes whether WTO should include the labor standards from the perspective of economy and human rights. There is no evidence showing that stolper-samuelsm theorem is tenable in reality. Some cases also demonstrate that trade sanctions can not be used to promote labor standards in other countries. So the author is against the inclusion of labor standards into WTO. Finally, from the aggression of WTO and the great impact of consumer campaign, the author holds that the labor standards will be eventually included into WTO.Part IV: "the international labor standards and the China' s legislation on labor" . Although our country has made great effort to protect the rights of worker, our legislation on labor needs to be perfected in many places. The following measures should be taken: to further perfect the labor law and labor union law to insure freedom of association and right to collective bargaining; to take gradual step to reform the system of residence, eliminating the discrimination in work; to strengthen the enforcement and supervision of labor law, putting an end to the use of child labor; to further study the fundamental labor conventions and take an active part in the activities of ILO.