NationStates Jolt Archive

Enforce Fair Trade Standards
A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.

Category: Social Justice

Description: We, the Nomadic Peoples of Ishmaella, are disgusted with the unethical practices of businesses around the world. There are non-UN nations that let their businesses get away with using child labor, paying starvation wages, and even owning slaves. But more disturbing is that UN nations, while keeping higher moral standards within their own borders, trade with these nations.

We propose that the UN stop supporting these barbaric practices by enforcing a standard of fair trade. All the nations in the UN must refuse to trade with any nation that...

- allows child labor
- allows slavery
- allows unsafe workplaces
- allows unfair wages (i.e., wages that do not provide enough money for the employee to live off of)
- refuses workers the right to unionize

Additionally, we propose that the UN oversee the formation of a Fair Trade Organization, which admits nations willing to adhere to the above demands and ensures that they stick to their promises.

Exactly how free is free trade if it relies on slavery? Are low prices really worth all this human suffering? If we uphold these standards, we will be creating a more just, more ethical world for ourselves and our children.

Voting Ends: Fri Nov 19 2004

Please consider this proposal. Thank you.

wages that do not provide enough money for the employee to live off of

So if I own a lemonade stand and I offer my friend next door a nickel to watch the stand while I run to the restroom, this law would make me give them 5,000 Jay?

Drop the words "unethical" and "ethical" from this, as they suppose a codified set of ethics everyone applies to. Otherwise, I support it.

- allows child labor
- allows slavery
- allows unsafe workplaces
- allows unfair wages (i.e., wages that do not provide enough money for the employee to live off of)
- refuses workers the right to unionize


You do realise that two of these groups - unsafe workplaces and unfair wages - are not actually covered by any UN resolutions. (I will stand corrected if I am wrong by the way)

So if we are not willing to pass resolutions that protect these rights in our own nations, why should we try to force them upon others?

I fully support the rest of the proposal though, and look forward to seeing more comments and debates about it.

So if I own a lemonade stand and I offer my friend next door a nickel to watch the stand while I run to the restroom, this law would make me give them 5,000 Jay?
Lemonade stands generally don't export their products.

You do realise that two of these groups - unsafe workplaces and unfair wages - are not actually covered by any UN resolutions. (I will stand corrected if I am wrong by the way)
I didn't know that, actually. Oops.

So if we are not willing to pass resolutions that protect these rights in our own nations, why should we try to force them upon others?
That's a perfectly good question. I'm going to wait until this proposal fails, then submit those two proposals and hope they pass. If they do pass, become resolutions, and then become law, I will re-submit this proposal. Or hopefully, somebody else who cares about these things will do some of that anyway. :D