Finance & economics | Working to rule

How trade is being used to enforce labour standards

Both America and the EU are toughening up

|WASHINGTON, DC

EVEN ARDENT free traders have their limits. Most would agree, for example, on the odiousness of imports made with slave labour. They could also sniff at stuff made by children, or workers unable to join a union of their choice. And yet, as one person’s labour protections are another’s protectionism, baking such standards into the global trading rules has proven impossible. Increasingly, though, America and the European Union (EU) are toughening up on their own.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Working to rule”

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