International Trade and Investment - International Trade and Investment

With the ever-increasing economic development across the globe, several markets have emerged owing the changes in customers’ tastes, preferences and needs that have been further accelerated by the international technological advancement. Additionally, it has facilitated a need to developed trade policies that will foster the trade between the trading parties or nations with the aim of ensuring efficient and effective transfer of goods and services across the border with minimal hiccups. It has led to the formation of the trade agreement with the main purpose of promoting mutual benefits for the trading parties or nations. Therefore, current paper seeks to support the provision of core labor standards, in which case the environmental standards should be included in the trade agreements at all times. Trade agreement refers to the stipulated and drafted policies aimed at regulating the trading sector within a given region in terms of the amount of taxes and quotas to be imposed on import or export. In this regard, there is a need to explain various types of trade agreements that can either be multilateral or bilateral in nature. A bilateral trade involves a trade agreement with individual within a given location whereas multilateral agreement represents a trade agreement between two or more countries for the purpose of economic prosperity. It is aimed at negotiating for a free trade agreements for the participants and removing various economic restrictions such as quotas, tariffs and bans imposed on products. Core labor standards should be included in a trading agreement to protect the employees from over-exploitation by the employers. Core labor standards are recognized internationally and include the following: • the right of associations at the workplace; • the minimal working conditions in relation to minimum wage, occupational safety, health and working hours; • the right of collective bargain and the right of protection from forced labor; • the minimal age, at which children can be employed. Labor standards should be included in a trade agreement to protect employees from physical or psychological torture, as some of the employers often take advantages of the employees and in most cases exploit them since trade agreements do not have any rules that would restrict them from doing so. The main reason for including the provision of core labor standards in trade agreements is to protect the nation or parties from unfair completions that might exist in the free market economy where the law supply and demand are in due course and some of the investors may want to run away from the responsibility, which has always been observed in some countries where labor laws are not always taken seriously by the government. This has led to the violation of labor rights especially in the developing nations where the trade unions are often ineffective when advocating for the employees’ rights. The inclusion of core labor provision in the trade agreements not only creates a just foundation for carrying out economic activities without infringement of the labor rights of employees, but also creates a perfect competitive environment as well as jobs for individuals in a given country. Core labor standards are aimed at improving the general living of employee as well as stimulating cooperation of employees to promote innovations and exchange of ideas at the workplace so that the organization can work smoothly and effectively. As a result, it will protect children from forced labor. The relationship that existing between core labor standards and trade agreement is aimed at protecting the citizens from exploitive nature of any kind of work and promoting trade in general as it will be of some help to the organization that has adopted the trade policies and added advantage that comes along with subsidies in the market. It should also be mentioned that some trade agreements that allow including core labor standards in the trade agreement get subsidies by the government, which lowers the overall cost of running the business hence increases gross profit. In case of including the core labor standards in the trade agreement, the country should be cautious concerning the rights of the employees so that they will be protected from the wrath of unscrupulous employers whose aim is to benefit maximally at the expense of the employees. Environmental standard represents the international set standard policies that aim at regulating the human activities as far the land is concerned. It aims at protecting the land from misuse by either an investor or the government itself. International environmental standards include the policies related to the emissions of the toxic substances in the form of smoke. The reason of why the environment standards should be included in the trade agreements is to protect the land from degradation that might occur during excavation of minerals; this will encourage responsibility on the part of investors to avoid instances of wasting the natural resources at the disposal. It will also encourage the highest level of responsibility at a given time. By including the set of environmental standard policies in the trade agreement, it will ensure that the investors and companies intending to carry out given activities within a designated locality will always observe the regulation or risk being closed down. The threats of environmental pollution will be eliminated and the citizens and employees will be able to do their activities without worrying about their health. This will protect the community from exploitation so that the cases of frequent health complications will not be heard off. Hence, the problem of protecting future communities from becoming extinct due to the emission of the toxic substances to the environment will be dealt with accordingly, Environmental standards included in trade agreements will further protect the community’s scarce resources from depletion and will ensure that the community’s limited resources are adequately and appropriately utilized. The major objective of including the environmental standards in the trade agreements is to encourage the protection of the community and ensure proper extraction of the limited resource so as to ensure they do not get depleted in the long run. This can be achieved by including the provision of environmental standards d on the policies ensuring that the country’s resources are not at stake and the communities’ rights are not violated by the investors in given industries. The inclusion of environmental standards in trade agreements is aimed protecting developing nations from exploitation since most of them lack the environmental policies that would protect their resource from aggressive investors who may want to take advantage of the situation in the given developing country. Most developing countries have a lot of lands lying bare and that these lands are the main target of most investors as it is generally believed that they have relaxed policies in relation to the use of land as a whole. As a result, the cost of production and operating business in most cases is often seen as “very cheap”. This has seen many investors rush to establish various industries which have caused much pollution in given locations. It has further accelerated the rising numbers of cases characterized by medical complications that have hit the community population in those developing nations. It has further increased the cost of living as well as the cost of health care services by the affected families in the developing nations. Additionally, this has seen the communities to lose very young and energetic children due to reckless actions of some investors who do not value the lives of the community members with whom they cooperate. Therefore, this has proved the reasoning why the environmental standards should be included in the trade agreements of any kind so as to protect the communities. These kinds of agony should be avoided by all means.In conclusion, it is indeed valid to include the core labor standards and environmental standards in trade agreements. This will not only encourage the efficient and effective use of natural resources but also protect the employees from unfair labor practices. Additionally, it will encourage the cultures of responsibility as well as protect the citizens from physical harm that might result in case of the excavation of minerals. Subsequently, it will encourage a fair competitive environment for caring out business as well as protect the country’s natural resources from the misuse on the part of the investors. With the global economic development, the emphasis on including core labor standards and environmental standards in trade agreements should be stressed and supported by any rational reasoning being at all times simply because the era of exploitive nature is long gone and the investors, employees, and the government should have a mutual benefit in the long run. Both the core labor standards and environmental standards in trade agreements should be observed to avoid cases, in which the investors misuse the natural resources of the countries. To a certain extent, it ends up with making the country poorer as this violates the principle of mutual benefits. Labor and environmental agreements are, therefore, pertinent for integrating sustainable development principles in trade agreements. Trade is a unifying factor globally, and there is a need to ensure that the trade activities adhere to the ethical codes of practices.

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