Document 4 Child Labor and Global Free Trade The minimum working age set in the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Convention on Child Labor is 15, although in special circumstances it may be 14. Yet in 2000, the ILO estimated that there were 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 working around the world. This equates Of these children, about 73 million were younger than 10 years old. This seems like exploitation of the worst kind-and it often is. just under one-fifth of all children in this age group. Compared to the WTO [World Trade Organization], the ILO is almost without power, prompting critics of globalization to argue for a greater role for the WTO in enforcing labor standards. Many labor violations have nothing to do with international trade and may have no impact on it. In many countries, for example, child labor is not seen as exploitation but normal part of family life. Children work alongside their parents and other relatives in extended family businesses. Others, less fortunate, work factories, fields, or mines. as a in Some have argued for greater ratification and enforcement of ILO conventions. Although a worldwide legal ban on child labor might sound like a good idea, it could actually make matters worse, further driving struggling families into poverty. A recent agreement negotiated in Brazil suggests a possible solution. There, a successful pilot project pays subsidies to poor families if all the children in the family regularly attend school. A more recent proposal would reward girls with a savings account if they eomplete-eight yenrsof sehoet- Source: Randall Frost, The Globalization of Trade, Smart Apple Media, 2004 Document 5 Guiyu is a town in China famous for recycling electronic waste (e-waste). Many involved in the e-waste business migrated from poorer regions in China to gain work with the hope of opening their own business. Andrew Blackwell visited Guiyu in 2011. ... Theirs [the Han family] was one of thousands of similar workshops town. Guiyu's entire economy is based on tearing apart old electronics and reselling the components and raw materials. Walk the streets and you will see building after building with a workshop at ground level and family quarters on the upper floors. It's a dirty business. Computers are full of all kinds of things that are bad for you-things other than the Internet-and when you tear them apart, or melt them down, or saw them into pieces, a portion of those toxic substances is released. In a place like Guiyu, with what I'll call relaxed workplace standards, you end up with workshops full of lead dust and other heavy metals and clouds of who the hell knows what floating through the streets. The water is laced with PCBS and PBDES and other hazardous acronyms. The air, the water, the dust-in Guiyu it comes with promises of cancer, nerve damage, and poisoned childhood development. Exporting toxic waste across borders, especially to developing countries, is supposed to be illegal. The Basel Convention, the treaty that outlaws it, was already nearly twenty years old by the time I visited Guiyu, in 2011. In the case of electronic waste, though, the convention is easy to circumvent [get around]. As the green-electronics coordinator at the ever-present Greenpeace has said, “the common way exporters get round existing regulations is to relabel_ewaste as second hand gods for recycling.".. Document 1 In this excerpt, the transformation of the British economy is discussed. For a few decades in the 19th century British manufactured goods dominated world trade. Most mass manufactured items were produced more efficiently and competitively in Britain than elsewhere. She also had the commercial, financial and political power to edge out rivals at home and abroad. In some industries, most notably textiles, massive changes took place in technology and in the organisation of production causing dramatic productivity growth. This in turn brought a steep decline in prices. In many other sectors more modest organisational improvements coupled with greater specialisation and the employment of cheap labour brought similar, though less dramatic, results. An unprecedented [extraordinary] range and variety of products thus came within the grasp of a new mass market both within Britain and overseas. No other country could at first compete so Britain became the workshop of the world. Source: Pat Hudson, "The Workshop of the World," BBC History online, March 29, 2011 Document 2 One of the major commodities exported from India to Britain was tea. A growing industry, by 1900 there were around 4,000 tea estates in north and south India, as well as over 2,000 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This popular drink generated a hugely profitable industry, and a tea culture emerged in LIPTON'S TEAS ICH. PURE, A FRAGRANT. 1/-and 1/4 per lb. THE T TA E w caN 1/7 per lb. LIPTON, Tes & Ce Planter, CEYLON. UPTONS TEA Britain with its own quintessentially [classically] English customs and rituals. . .. Source: Lipton Tea Advertisement, The Illustrated London News, September 17, 1892, as found in "Global Trade and Empire, Asians in Britain, British Library online Document 3 George Soros is a Hungarian-American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He has published books and articles on finance and on public policy. ... The disparity [difference] in the treatment of labor and capital is an essential feature of the global capitalist system as it is currently organized. Capital moves to countries where it finds cheap labor and other favorable conditions. This helps those countries to develop; a number of them have made remarkable progress. Developed countries lose jobs, but the gains from trade allow new jobs, often with greater value added, to be created. There is also a certain amount of migration, both legal and illegal, to the rich countries to fill jobs that cannot be filled locally. But workers in the countries that offer cheap labor are often deprived of the right to organize and are mistreated in other ways. China is notorious in this respect. . ..