standards, where do they belong on the international trade agenda

D uring the past decade, universal labor standards have become the focus ofintense debate among policymakers, international agencies, nongovern-mental organizations, college campus activists and the general public. Tension over labor standards has sometimes erupted into violent conflict between police and demonstrators, as it recently did during the spring 2001 Conference of the Americas in Quebec. Labor rights activists argue that the nations of the world ought to be able to agree on some set of universally accepted human rights regarding working condi-tions that would apply in all nations. In addition, trade with countries in which labor is protected poorly may create an incentive to lower wages in industrialized countries and weaken existing labor law in order to maintain competitiveness in international trade. As a remedy, some proponents seek to protect the interests of labor by incorporating labor rights into international trade law. Opponents of internationally established labor standards respond that the regulation of labor markets, as a matter of national sovereignty, should remain primarily in the domain of domestic policy and should not be a topic in interna-tional trade negotiations. The promulgation of standards internationally ought to be delegated to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and advanced ex-clusively through dialogue, monitoring and technical advice. Our purpose here is to analyze the arguments concerning the value of coor-dinating labor standards internationally, the arena in which international labor standards ought to be established, and the instruments that can be used construc-tively to bring about compliance. We will examine the analytical underpinnings of universal rules for labor rights; the evidence on whether labor practices i