劳工标准视野下的新贸易保护主义及中国的应对

自上世纪70年代中期以来,劳工标准问题逐渐成为发达国家和发展中国家在贸易领域关注的焦点问题之一。发达国家与发展中国家争议的焦点则在于是否应将国际贸易与劳工权利保护这一问题挂钩。虽然在2001年以来的多哈回合谈判中,由于广大发展中国家的强烈反对,劳工标准问题始终未能成为新一轮多边贸易谈判的内容,但劳工标准作为与贸易有关     

WTO体制下贸易与劳工问题研究

WTO制度的调整对象能否扩展到"贸易与劳工"问题至今尚有争议.发达国家为了维护对市场份额的占有,积极倡导企业的社会责任,在劳工组织对劳工标准的推行配合下,在WTO体制内提出贸易和劳工议题.从多边贸易体制本身来说,WTO已经为贸易和劳工问题的解决留下了制度空间.从发展态势上看,WTO与其他国际组织的合作、区域经济一体化的蓬勃发展都将对WTO贸易和劳工议题的谈判产生重大影响.     

WTO贸易与劳工问题研究

WTO制度的调整对象能否扩展到“贸易与劳工”问题至今尚有争议。发达国家为了维护对市场份额的占有,积极倡导企业的社会责任,在劳工组织对劳工标准的推行配合下,在WTO体制内提出贸易和劳工议题。从多边贸易体制本身来说,WTO已经为贸易和劳工问题的解决留下了制度空间。从发展态势上看,WTO与其他国际组织的合作、区域经济一体化的蓬勃发展都将对WTO贸易和劳工议题的谈判产生重大影响。     

SA8000体系与多边贸易体制下的“劳工标准与贸易挂钩”问题

欧美等发达国家将劳工标准与贸易挂钩由来已久,不仅通过制订国内法实行单边挂钩,阻碍发展中国家劳动密集型产品的进口,而且试图将此问题纳入多边贸易体制之下。本文通过对SA8000标准与国际通行的劳工标准的比较,分析了SA8000体系的实质及其与“劳工标准与贸易挂钩”问题的关系,并对其在多边贸易体制框架下的发展前景做出了展望。     

自由贸易协议谈判中的国际劳工标准问题

国际劳工标准是一种规范全球范围劳工事务的制度。经济全球化导致劳工标准问题的重要性日益凸现,发达国家采取了将劳工标准与贸易挂钩的方式推进劳工标准的实施,并在地区层次和双边层次取得了重大进展,但在全球层次的谈判则陷入"囚徒困境"。这是发达国家和发展中国家在劳工标准领域博弈的结果。中国在劳工标准领域也面临着巨大的挑战。     

国际劳工贸易壁垒与我国的应对策略

近年来，美国等发达国家多次提出将“国际劳工标准”纳入WTO的多边贸易体系，这种将贸易与劳工标准挂钩的做法实质是贸易保护主义。但同时我们也看到，我国现行的劳工标准与发达国家相比还有很大差距，我国的对外出口贸易已经受到国际劳工贸易壁垒的阻碍。因此，我们要积极应对国际劳工贸易壁垒，努力改善和提高我国的劳工标准。     

劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩的南北分歧与发展趋势

发达国家提出将劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩,有其深厚的经济和社会基础。在这一问题上,发达国家与发展中国家存在着根本性分歧：发达国家认为发展中国家的低劳工标准是社会倾销行为,而发展中国家认为挂钩是发达国家贸易保护主义的体现。尽管如此,发达国家仍是采取了种种举措在国际贸易中推行劳工标准,本文就此进行分析。     

劳工标准与贸易壁垒关系辨析

当前,大多数发达是国家强调WTO等国际组织需完善相应的劳工标准,以此控制发展中国家的比较优势.本文通过阐述核心劳工标准,并建立相关的模型,从发展中国家和发达国家两方的角度说明劳工标准既不是发展中国家的比较优势的终结,也并非发达国家贸易的障碍,劳工标准未必是贸易壁垒.     

劳工标准：贸易保护主义的新威胁

乌拉圭回合谈判结束后,发展中国家面临着新的压力和进一步的挑战。劳工标准问题是发达国家同发展中国家之间争议最大和最为复杂的问题之一。劳工标准的提出,实际上是一些发达国家用高关税办法来对付发展中国家低劳动成本产品进口的竞争所寻求的借口,以达到贸易保护的目的。我国已被一些发达国家列入所谓低工资高竞争的名单内,从,而可能成为劳工标准的主要审查对象。为了挫败这一新的贸易保护主义企图,我们应该进一步认识和了解《劳工标准:贸易保护主义的新威胁》,制定有关的对策。     

奥巴马贸易日程纠正多哈谈判“不平衡”

根据新上任的美国领导层所发布的贸易日程,奥巴马政府呼吁在WTO多哈回合贸易谈判中“纠正不平衡”,提出要重整谈判优先次序,敦促各方强调环保和劳工标准优先。并在目前仍悬而未决,但今后即将签署的美国贸易协议中纳入更为严格的劳工和环境问题内容。这无异于要发展中国家放弃早就确定了的发展议程。     

Ethics and Marketing Management:: A Retrospective and Prospective Commentary

The Authors thank the Journal of Business Research for awarding its Quality and Impact in Marketing Scholarship Award to our 1985 article, “Ethics and Marketing Management.” In this article, provide a retrospective that examines how subsequent research has extended our findings and provide a prospective that suggests directions for future research.     

Hiring hospitality faculty:: Erudition and experience

Of nearly 100 hospitality faculty membeers hired in the past three years, more than half held a doctoral degree. While the bulk of those new hires had just a year or two of hospitality work experience, many reported considerable time in the industry.     

The Cuban market:: Opportunities and barriers

To open our feature on business in Cuba, Kaplowitz presents a brief overview of the dramatic changes in the Cuban market since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Until 1988, 85% of Cuban two-way trade was with the former Soviet Union, but by 1993 the COMECON nations accounted for only 20% of Cuban trade. The resulting chaos has created openings for Latin American, European and Canadian businesses to fill the investment void in Cuba. Kaplowitz lays out how recent developments have affected Cuban laws on foreign investment and trade, reviews which foreign companies are barkening to Cuba's call, and what the opportunities might be for U.S. businesses should relations between the two countries improve over the long-term. Her article is the first of seven articles in this feature.     

Culture and Technology:

The classic study of the relationship between technological innovation and culture has been that of the influence and changes wrought by a technological innovation upon a culture: The Culture Follows Technology school of thought. In this paper we examine the opposite flow: the influence of culuture upon the technological innovative capabilities of a society-Technology Follows Culture. We examine this flow and suggest propositions upon a society's innate ability to source or adopt technological innovations based upon the five Hofstede cultural dimensions.     

Ethnocentrism and Universalism:

Various statements pertaining to the Arab and Muslim people were compiled from major print media sources during the Gulf Crisis of 1990-91. The statements were given to 162 participants to rate them in terms of degree of ethnocentrism and universalism. The results indicated that participants rated most of the statements as ethnocentric and few as universal. In addition, the results showed that there is a strong negative correlation between ethnocentric and universal views. Implications for international business are provided.     

Business Ethics: A European Review: Change and Continuity

As was announced at the beginning of this volume of Business Ethics: A European Review , the current editor is retiring from the editorship at the end of this year. It gives him great pleasure to announce that he will be succeeded as Editor of the Review by Dr Jane Collier, of the Judge Institute, Cambridge. In this invited article Dr Collier offers some reflections on how she envisages the future of the Review.     

Gender and Inequality: Austerity and Alternatives

Gender equality policies aim to increase women’s participation in the market economy, but they do not always recognise that market societies reproduce inequalities at micro and macro levels. At the micro level, labour markets are gendered institutions, and at the macro level, austerity policies have inherent biases and negative impacts that fall disproportionately on women.     

Trustworthiness and trust: influences and implications

Abstract

This paper frames trustworthiness as the key upstream construct of trust and recognises that trust operates at two levels in services relationships, with a number of key drivers that are mediated by trustworthiness. Our findings are supported by survey data from customers of UK financial services, with the data points captured over a number of years which allow for fluctuations in trust level.

Empirically we find that trustworthiness impacts both the cognitive and affecting dimensions of trust, with the impact being greatest on cognitive trust. As a result of our findings it is possible for practitioner to implement policies to not only build trust but also deal with issues where there is a need to rebuild it, as in the case of our research setting.     

FOCUS: Ethical Business: Thinking Thoughts and Facilitating Processes

Doing business ethics and conducting ethical business has to be much more than conducting a rational enquiry. Much also depends on the motivation of individuals and how a positive moral vision of business can unite intellectual and affective approaches to the conduct of business. The author is a lecturer in Philosophy at Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, and a Research Associate at the Local Government Centre at Warwick Business School. He is also an independent organisation development consultant specialising in helping organisations develop their learning processes and value-based forms of leadership.