ABSTRACT
Most free traders see recent demands that trade be linked to compliance with environmental and labor standards as motivated by the desire to protect jobs at home against increased competition from the Third World and view many fair traders as charlatans. This chapter suggests the idea of a blanket prohibition of trade sanctions to affect other countries’ policies and advocates a more subtle legal and institutional approach to the relationship between trade, environment, and labor rights. It proposes a normative framework for disaggregating and evaluating “fair trade” claims relating to labor and environmental standards. The chapter describes a critical distinction between claims that trade measures should be used to attain a specific non-trade goal or vindicate a specific non-trade value, and arguments for a “level” competitive playing field, evening the odds, or establishing “fair” rules of the game that are internal to the trading system.
