Trade is controversial; around the world many people believe that trade agreements, even trade per se, undermines particular human rights such as labor rights or access to affordable medicine (the right to health).  But trade and trade agreements can also advance human rights, directly or indirectly. In fact, some countries use trade policies to advance specific human rights such as labor rights or property rights. Nonetheless, policymakers struggle to achieve both goals because:

    •    The global economic environment is increasingly complex

    •    Policymakers have no mandate to coordinate trade and human rights

    •    Most governments have no structure to coordinate trade and human rights

    •    Little research on how trade policies may affect human rights and how protecting human rights may encourage trade

 

    •    We all have a collective responsibility to uphold human rights

    •    Business, the most important agent of globalization, is often caught between market forces, failure of state actors to protect human rights, and unclear WTO rules.

    •    When policymakers fail to coordinate trade and human rights, it undermines achievement of both policy goals.

 

            Written in a highly accessible style, the authors use stories about AIDS, frogs, chocolate, culture, tires and other topics to provide readers with new insights into this relationship. Specifically:

 

    •    The book also includes the first study of how South Africa, Brazil, the United States, and the European Union make trade policy, coordinate trade and human rights objectives, and resolve conflicts.

    •    Aaronson and Zimmerman show how human rights issues are seeping into the WTO.