SDG 8 and Elimination of Child Labour in the Cocoa Industry in Ghana: Can WTO Law and Private Sector Responsible Business Initiatives Help?

Abstract

The issue of child labour in the cocoa industries of producer countries like Ghana has come to the forefront of the discourse on trade related problems in international trade and how the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules can be used to address them. Though the WTO rules are fundamentally aimed at non-discrimination and liberalisation of international trade, they also provide for exceptions that allow member states to impose restrictions or total bans on imports of products that are not in consonance with non-economic objectives like public morals, public health and the conservation of natural resources. This paper conducts analysis of some exceptions to the WTO rules on non-discrimination and trade liberalisation. Using the problem of child labour in the cocoa industry in Ghana as an example, the paper discusses how these exceptions in the WTO rules could be used by an importing country to influence action against the use of child labour in cocoa exporting countries like Ghana. Where either the WTO rules or state action cannot or does not address the problem of child labour adequately, the paper analysis the viability of private sector responsible business initiatives inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as substitutes or complements to the WTO rules and state action.