Governments in poor countries fear that if they undertake measures that enhance real wages and working conditions, rising labor costs will cause richer countries to import from and invest elsewhere. This work examines how the trading system can be reformed to better support efforts by poor countries to promote the well-being of their peoples.

List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. What Is Linkage? Two Propositions 2. Three Types of Linkage, and What Linkage Proponents Must Show 3. What Linkage Opponents Must Show 4. Arguments Against Linkage 5. Ruling Out Linkage Proposals 6. A Constructive Procedure-Identifying Linkage Proposals That Meet the Standard Objections-A Constructive Procedure 7. Sketch of One Posible Linkage System 8. Conclusion Appendix. Empirical Evidence on the Likely Effects of Improvements in Labor Standards Commentary by Kyle Bagwell: Economic Theory, WTO Rules, and Linkage Commentary by Rohini Hensman: Fine-Tuning the Linkage Proposal Commentary by Robert Goodin: The Ethics of Political Linkage Commentary by Roberto Mangabeira Unger: The Transformative Imagination and the World Trading System Reply to Commentators Notes Index

An impeccably reasoned and convincing argument in favor of labor standards as part of trade agreements... Highly recommended. Choice a thoughtful, interesting, and generally well written account of a contentioussubject. -- Amitrajeet A. Batabyal Development Policy Review required reading as one of the most important books of recent years -- Michael Pollak Left Business Observer Barry and Reddy also make innovative moral arguments that subvert standard economic assumptions. -- Lisa Fuller Ethics & International Affairs the book is a refreshingly controversial contribution. -- Miriam Ronzoni Global Justice

Barry and Reddy have made a contribution to the alliance of reason with hope. They exemplify a principle that should be rendered radical and universal: the reinvention of the institutional forms of the market and an open world economy. The method in this book is to turn the tables on the abusers of economics, impaling them on their own weapons. -- Roberto Mangabeira Unger, minister for strategic affairs in the government of Brazil, and Roscoe Pound Professor of Law at Harvard Law School International Trade and Labor Standards makes a cogent, interdisciplinary case for a fair system of norms and rules that link labor standards worldwide to trade policy. The volume provides an excellent basis for serious discussions concerning the use of multilateral institutions to improve the conditions of many of the world's least-advantaged people. -- Robert O. Keohane, professor of international affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University Written by a numerate philosopher and a morally reflective economist, this work brings much illumination to the previously cloudy dispute about linkage. Focusing on the practical task of reforming the international trade regime to improve conditions for the poor, this book is also a substantial contribution to the current debates about global justice. -- Thomas Pogge, professor of philosophy, Yale University, and professorial fellow, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, The Australian National University