GATT/WTO框架中环境标准和劳工标准

从环境标准和劳工标准的视角,探究GATT/WTO在尊重国家主权和提高全球效率之间寻找平衡的制度安排.在引入关税和国内环境标准与劳工标准的模型中,产生单边的贸易政策引起的非效率均衡点.而在GATT/WTO构建的多边贸易协定平台上,能解决国内和国际环境与劳工标准的分歧,增加贸易的透明度,达到更有效率的互惠贸易均衡点.     

贸易与劳工标准挂钩:新的贸易保护主义

贸易和劳工标准的关系问题是当今国际经济学界的一个重要问题,本文首先阐述了贸易与劳工标准挂钩的两派观点,然后从实证的角度探讨了贸易与劳工标准的关联性,笔者发现:劳工标准与国际贸易并没有必然联系,将劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩缺乏理论或者事实依据.本文最后把劳工标准问题置于经济全球化背景下进行研究,剖析了发达国家将劳工标准与贸易挂钩的保护主义实质,并提出了我国应采取的对策.     

贸易自由化进程中劳工标准体系分化及发展研究

本文主要研究的是贸易自由化进程中劳工标准体系分化及发展问题.单边贸易立法、自由贸易协定、跨国公司行为准则或社会责任标准体系,这三者皆于不同程度实现了劳工标准和贸易政策的挂钩,降低了贸易伙伴的国际竞争力,致使劳工标准体系日益分化.这一状况不但影响了全球各国劳工关系与劳工标准的实施水平,对国际贸易发展的影响也在日益深入.本文提出了几条应对劳工体系分化的对策,旨在促进我国的国际贸易健康发展.     

论国际贸易中劳工权利保护的法律规制

国际贸易与劳工权利保护具有关联性与冲突性。工人权利与贸易的磋商已有很长的历史,随着世界经济全球化的推进,劳工权利必将与国际贸易挂钩。国际社会对贸易与劳工权利的规制既有国内法形式表现出的单边贸易壁垒,又有双边条约、多边协定的共同约定。虽然国际劳工组织就国际贸易中劳工权利的保护付出了积极的努力,但世界贸易组织对有关劳工权利的保护问题至今尚未列入其法律框架之下。     

浅析国际劳工标准与国际贸易

在经济全球化的大背景下,国际劳工标准是当前国际贸易领域的一个焦点问题.发达国家与发展中国家一直争论是否将国际劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩.因此加入WTO后,我们面临劳工标准问题的严峻挑战.本文阐述了国际劳工标准的概况,运用国际贸易理论分析了国际劳工标准与国际贸易之间的关系,并结合中国实际情况,从国家、企业层面提出在国际贸易中,应对国际劳工壁垒的对策,使得我国劳工标准逐渐提高的同时,对外贸易持续、健康、稳定地发展     

浅析国际劳工标准与国际贸易

在经济全球化的大背景下,国际劳工标准是当前国际贸易领域的一个焦点问题。发达国家与发展中国家一直争论是否将国际劳工标准与国际贸易挂钩。因此加入WTO后,我们面临劳工标准问题的严峻挑战。本文阐述了国际劳工标准的概况,运用国际贸易理论分析了国际劳工标准与国际贸易之间的关系,并结合中国实际情况,从国家、企业层面提出在国际贸易中,应对国际劳工壁垒的对策,使得我国劳工标准逐渐提高的同时,对外贸易持续、健康、稳定地发展。     

发展中国家劳工标准的演进路径——对“社会倾销”指责的一种经济学解析

中国等发展中国家经常因低劳工标准而被指责为“社会倾销” ,而发展中国家则反对将劳工标准问题与贸易挂钩。本文提供了一种解释发展中国家劳工标准演进的框架。本文认为发展中国家的劳工标准必然经历一个逐步提升的过程 ,在此过程中市场机制对于劳工标准的改变有重要作用。发展中国家的劳动力由于劳动边际生产率低而向国外流动 ,同时外国资本也进入发展中国家 ,在此过程中劳工标准得到提高 ,而并不需要国际组织的外力干预。这个分析具有重要的政策含义。     

国际劳工标准对中国的影响以及应对策略

随着经济全球化进程的加快,国际社会开始更多地关注劳工标准问题,并引发国际组织对该问题的争论,从国际力量对比看,将国际劳工标准问题与国际贸易挂钩已是大势所趋,因此国际劳工问题也逐渐写入了许多区域性的贸易协议中。国际劳工标准也有可能成为一项新的技术性贸易壁垒,这将对中国的经济造成广泛而深刻的影响．使我国经济面临着严峻的机遏与挑战、因此,必须寻求相应的策略采积极应对国际劳工标准问题。     

劳工标准与国际贸易:中国的实证分析

劳工标准与国际贸易之间的影响机制,是贸易摩擦中争论的一个核心问题。文章通过中国数据实证分析,认为随着对外贸易的提高,我国的劳工标准也相应的得到提高,二者之间呈现正相关的关系。推动对外贸易的发展,在某种程度上可以促进发展中国家劳工标准的提高。     

全球贸易与投资政策研究报告(2016)——国际贸易与投资新规则的重构

<正>出版日期:2017年3月ISBN 978-7-01-017317-7/本书由中央财经大学国际经济与贸易学院、全球贸易与投资政策研究中心共同编写,深度考察新一代贸易与投资协定的谈判进程,深入剖析新规则、高标准的演进趋势及其对我国贸易、投资以及经济可持续发展的影响,其内容涉及公平贸易、国际投资、服务贸易、跨境电商、原产地、政府采购、国家安全、贸易便利化、中小企业等领域的新规则,以及技术标准、劳工标准、环境标准和知识产     

The Effects of Consumer Bliss on Welfare Economics

Some developed countries have sought to counteract what they see as unfair competition faced by their domestic industries arising from the employment of child labor in the production of consumer goods in developing countries by including a "social clause" in the World Trade Organization (WTO) charter. Many people and civil society organizations in developed countries are also genuinely concerned with child labor employment purely on humanitarian grounds. In this paper we have argued that a more appropriate approach to tackle the child labor problem would be to facilitate acceleration of growth in developing countries through greater, not less, integration of these countries into the world trading system. We have also argued that directing development assistance for improving institutions and social infrastructure would be more effective than trade sanctions.     

Labor standards, labor-management bargaining and international rivalry

Using the labor union's bargaining power as an indication of government policy on labor standards issues, we analyze the competition between a domestic (North) firm and a foreign (South) firm, and their relationship with optimal labor standards (LS). First, we show that the optimal level of LS is higher when labor unions are employment-oriented than when they are not. Second, it is higher under free trade than under the optimal tariff system if labor unions are employment-oriented. Third, ‘a race to the bottom’ of LS occurs in the case of wage-oriented unions. Fourth, the North's imposing a tariff to force the Southern government to raise its LS is effective only if the Southern union is wage-oriented. In order to raise Southern LS, both countries may need some deeper form of economic integration, if the North does not want to abandon its free trade system.     

从开放宏观的视角看环境污染问题:一个综述

在全球化背景下,伴随着国际间的要素流动,环境问题越来越多地被赋予了全球化的内容。本文将环境与增长、环境与贸易、环境与就业、环境与人口迁移等研究文献纳入到一个开放宏观分析框架中,通过文献研究发现,国际分工使"南—北"之间存在了多纬度的"环境不平等":首先,环境与经济增长问题先后经历了三个发展阶段,即罗马俱乐部提出的"增长极限说"、环境库兹涅茨曲线假说、贸易与环境库兹涅茨曲线假说相关性的争论。随着研究的推进,环境与增长问题越来越类似于一枚硬币的两面,难以同时兼得,但是,由于国际分工模式的差异,发展中国家却为发达国家提供了"污染储藏地"。其次,虽然环境规制使企业损失了部分"棕色"就业,但是环境保护同样能够创造"绿色"就业,然而,在国际分工背景下,环境保护是否有利于发展中国家的整体就业还存在着争议。最后,环境恶化已经导致一些国家出现了"环境难民"以及随之而来的人口迁移。到2050年,全世界由气候变化引起的人口迁移很可能达到5千万至7亿。然而,穷国和富国的环境压力和迁移能力却不尽相同,从某种程度上,这也是国际分工产生的间接影响,但是,关于这一问题的研究还十分有限。     

A Case for a Partially Disaggregated Theory of Inflation

Approaches to economic development have overemphasized negative economic freedom for multinational corporations at the expense of a majority of the population in developing countries. An inevitable outcome has been the growth of informal sector and "vulnerable" employment in developing countries and entrenchment of existing inequalities. We argue that rather than an emphasis on negative freedom, an emphasis on using labor standards to facilitate positive economic freedom must occur. Labor standards do this not only through the "core" rights of union membership and collective bargaining, but also in addressing substantive ("non-core") rights at work (wages, working-time, etc.), thereby facilitating positive freedom.     

Globalization,labor standards,and women's rights: dilemmas of collective (in)action in an interdependent world

This paper challenges the idea that a “social clause” to enforce global labor standards through international trade agreements serves the interests of women export workers in poor countries. Drawing on fieldwork in Bangladesh and empirical studies, the author argues that exploitative as these jobs appear to Western reformers, for many women workers in the South they represent genuine opportunities. Clearly, these women would wish to better their working conditions; yet having no social safety net, and knowing that jobs in the informal economy, their only alternative, offer far worse prospects, women cannot fight for better conditions. Moreover, global efforts to enforce labor standards through trade sanctions may lead to declining employment or to the transfer of jobs to the informal economy. Lacking measures that also address the conditions of workers in this informal economy, demands for “the social clause” will reinforce, and may exacerbate, social inequalities in the labor market.     

The (lack of) international harmonization of EU standards: import and export effects in developed versus developing countries

This article studies the effect of the lack of international harmonization in agri-food standards on international trade flows focusing on the European Union (EU). The EU is characterized by high level of protectionism, which makes it an ideal case study. We measure the differences in countries’ level of ‘protectionism’ by applying an index of aggregation of non-tariff measures to data on maximum residue levels on pesticides and veterinary drugs allowed by countries on agri-food products. The restrictiveness of countries standards’ is compared with the one imposed by the Codex Alimentarius, which is considered as non-protectionist. The EU emerges as the most rigorous standards setter. The higher standards imposed by the EU affect in particular imports from developing countries, while it facilitates its exports, irrespective of the level of development and standard restrictiveness set by the importing countries.     

当前国际环境形势下中国的国际贸易对策

随着环境问题的国际化和普遍联系性特点的相互结合，国际环境形势出现了环境活动的主体性、环境行动的合作性、环境总理２的对立性和环境关系的复杂性等特点，在这种国际环境形势下，一方面环境问题越来越多地渗透到国际贸易中来，另一方面发达国家依例其环保管理入技术上的优势，趁机对发展中国家设置绿色壁垒并衽倾销，从而使中国和其他所有发展中国家的国际贸易面临严峻的环境挑战，对此，中国应该积极采取相应对策，包括开展环境     

Trade Sanctions and the Incidence of Child Labor

The purpose of this paper is to develop an imperfect competition model of a small open developing country to analyze the effects of trade sanctions on the incidence of child labor. We show that a uniform tariff levied by the developed countries on imports produced with the help of child labor is a failure in terms of reducing child labor. A more effective course of action would be a firm‐specific tariff where the tariff rate varies with the amount of child labor incorporated in a single good. While such an instrument reduces child labor, however, it worsens the children’s well‐being due to lower income and consumption. Contrary to expectations, the entrepreneurs in the developing countries, supposedly the main beneficiaries of child labor, are better off under trade sanctions as they realize higher profits.     

The impacts of innovations and standards on trade of measurement and testing products: empirical results of Switzerland’s bilateral trade flows with Germany, France and the UK

Nowadays, the impact of the measurement and testing infrastructure on economic performance and trade is theoretically and even politically widely accepted. However, there are no empirical studies on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the impact of innovative capacity and technical standards as one important part of the measurement and testing infrastructure on international trade flows and competitiveness. In order to focus on the direct causality between innovative technology and measurement and testing standards and the respective market, the empirical analysis concentrates on the trade of measurement and testing products of a country with a top position in measurement and testing technology. In its empirical analysis of Switzerland’s trade flows with Germany, France and the UK, the paper follows the approach of the pioneering paper of Swann et al. (Economic Journal 106 (1996) 1297), who integrated for the first time technical standards as a technology indicator in the estimation of UK trade performance. The trade flows in measurement and testing products from 1980 until 1995 are explained by both an indicator for innovative capacity and for the degree of standardisation. The first indicator is based on the patent applications at the European patent office. The latter uses the stocks of technical standards in the countries differentiated by their regional scope. Four different trade equations are analysed, besides an export and an import function, the trade balance and the intra-industry trade. The results clearly show that both Switzerland’s innovative capacity and its stocks of standards are able to explain its export performance in the three countries. Secondly, especially the stocks of international standards in Switzerland have a positive impact on imports into Switzerland from the three countries, confirming their positive role for fostering trade in general. Thirdly, Switzerland’s export surplus concerning the three trade partners is positively affected by the stocks of international standards in Switzerland, which seem to be an important factor for international competitiveness. Finally, the results of the intra-industry model underline the common view of the general trade-fostering effect of even national standards in the case of the trade with the three countries.