The relationship between labour and international trade: the ghost of the Havana Charter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu32.2025.119Abstract
The author examines the idea of creating the International Trade Organization (ITO) in 1948 and the charter of this organization (the Havana Charter). In this document, we are interested in the role assigned to labour conditions in the regulation of international trade in the post-war vision of this process. The ITO Charter was signed by 53 countries, but the organization was never established due to the lack of ratification by the United States. Nevertheless, the study of this charter is of significant interest to determine that labour standards were meant to play a role in regulating trade and in addressing international trade disputes arising from violations of fair labour condition norms (Article 7 of the Havana Charter). This conclusion is important for understanding that the modern system of free trade, which deliberately distances itself from ILO norms, represents a deviation from the intended development path. Moreover, it is argued that the efforts of developed countries to include references to labour conditions in trade regulation, which could not be realized within the GATT and WTO frameworks, have "migrated" into specific norms of free trade agreements and the Generalized system of preferences programs (GSP).
Keywords:
ILO, WTO, International Trade Organization, GATT, labor law
Downloads
References
Aaronson, Susan Ariel, and Jean Pierre Chauffour. "The Wedding of Trade and Human Rights: Marriage of Convenience or Permanent Match?" Available at: https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/wtr11_forum_e/wtr11_15feb11_e.htm
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty. Crown Currency, 2013.
Alben, Elissa. "GATT and the Fair Wage: A Historical Perspective on the Labour-Trade Link." Columbia Law Review 101 (2001).
Barnard, Catherine. EU employment law. OUP Oxford, 2012.
Chang, Ha-Joon. Bad Samaritans. The myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008.
Charnovitz, Steve. "Trade, Employment and Labour Standards: The OECD Study and Recent Developments in the Trade and Labour Standards Debate." (1997): 131.
Cimino-Isaacs, Cathleen D. Worker Rights Provisions and U.S. Trade Policy. Congressional Research Service, 2021. Available at: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46842
Davis, Rebecca Harding. "Life in the Iron Mills. 1861." New York: Bedford, 1998. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1861/04/life-in-the-iron-mills/304543/
De Ville, Ferdi, and Gabriel Siles-Brügge. "Why TTIP is a game-changer and its critics have a point." Journal of European Public Policy 24, no. 10 (2017): 1491-1505.
Deakin, Simon, and Frank Wilkinson. "Rights vs Efficiency-The Economic Case for Transnational Labour Standards." Industrial Law Journal 23 (1994): 289.
Edgren, Gus. "Fair labour standards and trade liberalisation." International Labour Review 118 (1979): 523.
Engels, Frederick. The Condition of the Working Class in England. 1845. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/
Fields, Gary. Trade And Labour Standards: A Review Of The Issues. Organisation For Economic Cooperation. OECD, 1994. Available at: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6d380525-bf08-4c75-9003-405e895ef83c/content
Gadbaw, R. Michael, and M. Medwig. "Multinational enterprises and international labour standards." In Human Rights, Labour Rights, and International Trade, edited by Compa, L. A., & Diamond, S. F. (1996): 141-162.
Graz, Jean-Christophe. "The Havana Charter: when state and market shake hands." In Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development, pp. 281-290. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016.
Hepple, Bob. Labour laws and global trade. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.
Langille, Brian A. "Labour standards in the globalized economy and the free trade/fair trade debate." Sengenberger/Campbell 1994 (1994): 329-338.
Litvinov-Falinsky, V.P. Factory legislation and factory inspection. Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional. M.: Printing house of A.S. Suvorin, 1904 (in Russian).
Mavroidis, Petros C., and André Sapir. "State Capitalism in the GATT/WTO Legal Order." Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 26, Issue 1, March 2023, Pages 154–165. https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1093/jiel/jgad00
Mayhew, Henry. London labour and the London poor. Penguin UK, 1985.
Polanyi, Karl. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Foreword by Joseph E. Stiglitz; with a new introduction by Fred Block. Beacon Paperback ed., 2001, p. 223.
Report Of The Tariff Negotiations Working Party General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade. E/PC/T/135. 24 July 1947. Available at: https://www.wto.org/gatt_docs/English/SULPDF/92290162.pdf
Santana, Roy. "70th anniversary of the GATT: Stalin, the Marshall Plan, and the provisional application of the GATT 1947." Journal of Trade Law and Development, Volume 9, pp. 1-20.
Serao, Matilde. Il Ventre Di Napoli, 1905. Available at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw6KnitN4C-qNGRjZTgzM2MtNjg5Yy00NDA3LTg4NjAtMTY5MzE5MTM2OTcx/edit?resourcekey=0-Oh2ZrM0sXjrruFntrXljzA
Servais, Jean-Michel. International Labour Law, Seventh Edition. Wolters Kluwer, 2022.
Trubek, David M., and Lance Compa. "Trade Law, Labour and Global Inequality." November 2005. University of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1001. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=845244 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.845244
Villermé, Louis-René. Tableaux de l'état physique et moral des salariés en France (1840). Paris: Les Éditions La Découverte, 1986.
Zola, Émile. Germinal. Translated and Introduced By Havelock Ellis J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. Aldine House—Bedford St.—London, 1885.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Articles of "Russian Journal of Labour & Law" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
