Trade And Employment

Trade and employment in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, trade and employment is: one of the items on the agenda of the 1947-48 United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment and its preparatory meetings. The entries on trade policy are here. Its inclusion stemmed from a recognition that pre- war unemployment exacerbated by beggar-thy-neighbour policies had been a major factor in the outbreak of the war. From the start of the Conference, there was a division between those who wanted to write effective employment provisions into what became the Havana Charter and those who were equally desirous of full employment, but who saw ECOSOC as the proper organization to deal particularly with cyclical unemployment and the coordination of measures to combat it. The Havana Charter imposed the following principal obligations on its members: (a) to achieve and maintain full employment in their territories, (b) to make measures to sustain employment consistent with other provisions of the Charter, (c) to avoid measures which would create balance-of-payments difficulties in other countries, (d) to take appropriate and feasible action to eliminate unfair labour conditions, (e) to act jointly with others that may be involved to eliminate persistent balance-of-payments problems, and (f) to participate in activities sponsored by ECOSOC to promote employment. The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization and the GATT list the objective of ensuring full employment in their preambles. Some claim that this gives the WTO a mandate for an examination of trade and labour issues, but this argument probably misrepresents the situation.[1]

Trade and employmentin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Trade and employment” entry (OAS)

See Also