The WTO and Child Labour: Implications for the Debate on International Constitutionalism

Abstract

Child labour remains a widespread problem around the world. According to global estimates published by the International Child Labour Organisation in 2017, 152 million children can be regarded as child labourers and 73 million children are in hazardous work. Despite many efforts to reduce child labour in global supply chains, children are still involved in either manufactured or agricultural products for export. This article is based on the assumption that in order to solve this problem, global solutions including trade measures are needed. Analysing some key legal issues relevant for the WTO law-compatibility of trade measures on child labour, it submits that under the current status of WTO law, some trade measures on child labour may be found to be WTO law-consistent. However, it holds that an ILO-WTO implementation mechanism de lege ferenda would be a more effective solution to combat child labour. In this context, the article briefly discusses new approaches to international law and argues that the constitutional approach to international law will help to provide answers how such a new governance framework for the issue of trade and child labour should be shaped.