Social Impacts of International Trade: Workers’ Rights, Human Rights, and Equitable Remunerations
Global trade has long been a powerful driver of economic growth through the interconnection of markets, easy transportability of goods, and mutual cooperation on an international scale. However, like all advantages that it generates, it also gave rise to various concerns about the social effects that the global trade produces, most of which are on labor rights, human rights, and fair wages. As supply chains have stretched across a number of continents, the questions of how they are made and by whom with what conditions for whom are focusing into sharper and sharper relief. Global trade has certainly raised the economic status of many people. However, it has also been accompanied by exploitation and inequality and human rights abuses in poor countries.
Labor Rights: The Global Supply Chain
The core issues of debate on global trade are workers’ rights for fair wages, safe working conditions, and the right to unionize. Workers in several developing countries of textiles, electronics, agriculture, and mining face exploitation since labor laws are feeble and the enforcement bar is quite low. There is also a high demand for cheap labor.
Most of this concern that has been reported and documented involves child labor, forcing labor, and bad working conditions in factories. This kind of work is never noticed and hides under a rather complex system of global supply chains, assembling goods in low-wage countries, and selling to markets that may have more adequate living standards. In this respect, the Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, and Indian factories make products for multinational brands that sell at below the living wage while the workers have to work under hazardous conditions with overlong hours and disrespect towards their rights.
Globalization of trade has thus strengthened the influence of multinational companies, which will do anything to cut production costs. Towards attaining this goal, it would likely look for sources in those countries whose labor laws are weak; hence, providing the soil for less expensive offers at the expense of some gilt-edged benefit to the worker. On liability between governments and private concerns falling towards observing an equal place for workers into world trade by ensuring that safety and dignity characterize it.
Global trade has also developed causal violation human rights linked with global trade.
The other issue with international trade is human rights violations. There are indirect implications of trade policies since they present conditions that support exploitation. The competitive edge in international trade exerts pressure that forces people in most weak regulatory countries, among other things, to dispossession, environmental degradation, and displacing communities from their respective locations.
Sometimes, the multinational companies exploit the natural resources of developing countries without consulting the local people and ensuring that the profits benefit the local communities. This has resulted in land ownership conflicts, as indigenous groups and rural communities lose their land to foreign investors. For instance, large-scale agricultural production in Brazil has led to deforestation, displacement of indigenous peoples, and destruction of ecosystems.
Furthermore, most trade agreements consider the economic interests than the protection of human rights; thus, they permit businesses to bypass some regulations that promote workers and communities’ rights. This includes denying the right to unionize from the side of workers, sidestepping compensations of health issues related to poor working conditions, or the payment of fair wages for laboring activities.
Fair Wages and International Trade Issue
Perhaps the most fundamental problem of social effects of global trade is fair wage. Most laborers in the developing countries get paid a minimum wage barely enough to keep their head above water. Among the leading worries of income disparity are textiles, agriculture, and mining where the majority of workers only reap a minimal proportion of what they generate in terms of value-added. Income inequality leads not just to poverty but also to social disturbances and imbalance.
For instance, garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Myanmar receive wages below the minimum wage and work for extremely long hours with very severe working conditions. Most of these wages are acceptable in the local context, but such wages cannot fulfill the standard needs of the living standards of a worker. It is a norm that workers from these industries face the lack of basic needs including food, shelter, and healthcare.
Another reason is that the call for fair wages is part and parcel of a much larger fight against wage theft. The employees are not paid for their overtime, paid leaves, or receive unfair deductions. In most cases, many of the workers along the global supply chain do not know this information or fear they will be repressed by their employers for asking about the same. These are factors that can only be compounded by the weakness of collective bargaining power and pathetic enforcement of labor laws in such instances.
Initiatives for Change: Ethical Trade and Fair Trade Practices
Despite all these serious problems relating to workers’ rights, human rights, and a fair wage in global trade, there are a few initiatives and frameworks that have emerged to face these problems in the promotion of fair and ethical trade.
Fair Trade Certification: Fair trade is an alternative mode of trading which ensures a better standard of living and the welfare of producers in developing countries. The fair trade organization does this by paying them fair wages, ensuring safe working conditions, and better terms of trade to reduce exploitation and enhance the quality of life of workers in developing countries. In this respect, fair trade certification is used on a vast range of products such as coffee, chocolate, and textiles so that consumers are able to make informed decisions while buying those products.
CSR: Companies have adopted CSR programs that protect labor conditions and fair wage practices in the supply chain. Some companies take leadership positions for the transparency in supply chains, labor condition reports, and their sourcing practices. In this way, the effort is to reduce positive social impacts in international trade. They want workers to be treated justly.
Human Rights Due Diligence Presently, there are sentiments calling for the imposition of human rights due diligence on companies so that indirectly they do not contribute to the violation of human rights. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have listed the activities of business operations by identifying, preventing, and mitigating adverse human rights impacts.
Advocacy and Consumer Pressure: In many occasions, the consumer is being a demanding one insisting companies to follow minimum standards set when producing these items. It follows through media networks and lobbies concerning supply chain labor and human rights issues, putting extra pressure on businesses to actively play a part concerning fair wage labor conditions.
Conclusion
The social impacts of global trade could be highly intricate in the aspects that portray complexity. On the other hand, while it cannot be denied that global trade is an undeniable boon to economic growth and development, this has also allowed many challenges in the areas of labor rights, human rights, and fair wages to gain prominence and warrant addressing from governments, businesspeople, and consumers. Ethical trade practices must be fostered with a guarantee of fair wages. International trade can be transformed to become more positive, protecting the rights of workers and societies.
Source: Various Reports on Global Trade and Human Rights, Fair Trade Organizations, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights