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  5. The Pro-Trade Bias of Offshoring

The Pro-Trade Bias of Offshoring

File(s)
WP 2021-13 The Pro-Trade Bias.pdf (462.24 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/110001
Collections
Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series
Author
Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu
Basu, Arnab K.
Chau, Nancy H.
Mitra, Devashish
Abstract

Technological advance and improvements in communication technologies have facilitated the offshoring of jobs worldwide, where a typical scene following the supply chain involves developing countries importing finished products from developed countries that contain developing country labor content. We demonstrate that this pattern of offshoring can harbor a pro-trade bias, but only among countries upstream along the global supply chain. This upstream-downstream asymmetry has important implications on countries’ (i) incentive to violate trade agreements, and (ii) ability to leverage the dispute settlement procedures to punish violators. We then show that a well-enforced set of labor standards in developing countries, such as a binding minimum wage, resolves this conundrum by reviving the ability of the developing countries to use countervailing tariffs to punish trade agreement violators.

Date Issued
2021-09
Keywords
Offshoring, Dispute Settlement Reciprocity, Labor Standards.
Type
article

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