Trade Liberalization and the Challenge of Effectively Enforcing Labor Standards Against Child Labor

Trade liberalization and the existence of child labor.  This paper discusses the implications of the trade liberalization policy on the enforcement of child labor standards.  It also presents various government interventions to address the child labor problem, and recommends possible actions against child labor.

As the Philippines joins the world march toward one intensely competing market, it begins to observe shifts in employment patterns that defy conventional work settings and labor standard requirements – giving rise to a number of unintended phenomena, such as child labor.  Likewise, the paper notes that violations of child labor standards are likely to increase with more economic activities spurred by trade liberalization.  The paper also calls for the formulation of new child labor standards that are simple to enforce, yet broad enough to cover modern forms of child labor.  It advocates for the examination of the emerging forms of employment to identify the most repugnant, so that specific policies may be developed against them.