The World Trade Organization and Import Bans in Response to Violations of Fundamental Labour Rights

Trade and labour are connected in many ways. One aspect of their relationship revolves around the question whether products that are made in violation of labour rights should be banned from the markets of importing States. In the negotiation process which led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this issue proved to be highly contentious. Since then not much has changed on the political level. Yet, it is not unheard of for States to raise import bans in response to human rights violations in exporting States. Therefore, it is likely that the WTO dispute settlement mechanism may at some point be confronted with a claim that one of the WTO Members has violated its WTO obligations because it has adopted an import ban in response to labour rights violations that occur in the exporting State. The World Trade Organization and Import Bans in Response to Violations of Fundamental Labour Rights investigates how the WTO dispute settlement mechanism should deal with such a case by looking into WTO law, general international law, and the relationship between these two fields.


About this book
‘This complex and challenging book [sorts] through the thickets of internal WTO rules and procedures, and their relation to other international and national legal processes. It is indispensable material for anyone making a policy argument, or trying to justify under law, that trade sanctions can – or cannot – be used to enforce certain kinds of labour-related human rights violations.’
Lee Swepston in 30 (2011) NQHR 595