Just Linkage: A Realistic Utopian Proposal for Promoting Global Labor Justice Christian Barry and Sanjay Reddy (The Commissioning Editor of Ethics & International Affairs at the Carnegie Council, Assistant Professor of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University)
This essay presents a proposal for linking trade and labor standards. It argues that violations of agreed international labor standards can, in the appropriate institutional setting, provide solid grounds for invoking trade sanctions. It consists of three sections. The first section develops a proposal for linking respect for labor standards with the right to participate in international trade. We discuss the content of the appropriate labor standards, the conditions under which linkage would be justified, and the best forms that such linkage might take. We argue that implementing our proposal would improve working conditions and living standards in poor countries while also expressing an appropriate attitude towards seriously unjust labor practices. Our linkage proposal is thus defended in terms of both its consequential efficacy, and the importance of respecting the agency and integrity of those who participate in trade and other forms of economic interaction. The second section creates a typology of the arguments that international economists and policymakers have offered (or could plausibly offer) against linkage. We show that although these arguments articulate legitimate concerns, they rest on unwarranted assumptions concerning the realism and practicability of linkage, show an impoverished understanding of the forms that linkage might take, and generally neglect the importance of non-consequentialist values in the comparative assessment of institutions that facilitate trade and other commercial activities. The third section suggests some general lessons that emerge from the debates concerning linking trade and labor standards, not least the importance of reflecting more imaginatively on questions of institutional design and reform at the international level.