Labour Laws and Global Trade

The global economy poses major new questions for employment and social policy on an international scale. Governments worldwide face dilemmas; whether to liberalize trade and investment or opt for protectionism; and whether to create flexible or tightly regulated labour markets. These same questions are hotly debated within the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and also within regional blocs such as the European Union, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, APEC and SADC. For neo-liberals, as for old-style labour protectionists, the choices may appear to be relatively simple. But most Governments and policy makers are striving to achieve a balance between free trade and investment on the one hand and high employment and raised social standards on the other. This book, written by a leading authority on international labour law, provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the complex policy and legal choices which face those wishing pursue a broadly social democratic response to the removal of barriers to trade and investment in a globalized market economy dominated by transnational corporations.