Publications
Publications
- March 2003 (Revised September 2004)
- HBS Case Collection
Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement
Abstract
Examines the political and economic dimensions of the campaign to improve workers' rights around the world through the inclusion of labor standards in international trade agreements. The U.S.-Cambodia Textile Trade Agreement was the first agreement of its kind to link increased access to U.S. markets to improved working conditions in an exporting country. Some argue that labor standards are becoming a new form of protectionism. Others see them as necessary to preserve open markets and fair trade. How this debate is resolved will undoubtedly have great implications for investors in developing countries and ultimately for the economic development of the poorer countries themselves.
Keywords
Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Rights; Working Conditions; Globalization; Consumer Products Industry; Cambodia; United States
Citation
Abrami, Regina M. "Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement." Harvard Business School Case 703-034, March 2003. (Revised September 2004.)