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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

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South Asiaglobalisation and Bangladesh: labour and environmental issues

Amarjit Kaur & Ian Metcalfe
a b a b

School of Economics, University of New England Deputy Director, Asia Centre, University of New England

Available online: 18 Jun 2010

To cite this article: Amarjit Kaur & Ian Metcalfe (2003): South Asiaglobalisation and Bangladesh: labour and environmental issues, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 26:3, 253-254 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0085640032000178862

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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., Vol.XXVI, no.3, December 2003

South AsiaGlobalisation and Bangladesh: Labour and Environmental Issues

Guest Editors
Amarjit Kaur, School of Economics, University of New England and
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Ian Metcalfe, Deputy Director, Asia Centre, University of New England

Four decades of rapid economic growth in most parts of Asia have resulted in fundamental economic and social transformations and a reduction in overall poverty. Labour markets and labour systems are also changing, as Asian states move progressively up the economic ladder to join the ranks of the second-tier and next-generation industrialising countries. Generally these advances have been warmly welcomed. Nevertheless, many observers are concerned at the trade-offs that have accompanied the Asian path to development: low wages; poor working conditions (especially for women and child workers); and a lack of concern for the environment. There is a widespread belief that Asian governments, in their drive to be internationally competitive, have downplayed the two key areas of labour and environmental standards. As the 1990s drew to a close, there was pressure from some quarters for the insertion of clauses into multilateral trade agreements that would allow trade sanctions against countries that did not comply with labour and environmental standards. The labour standards debate revolves around (especially) four issueschild labour, health and safety features of the workplace, working conditions, and labour rights. The developed countries rationale for including these standards is to mitigate potentially adverse effects of international market competition. Developing countries, though, are sceptical of this line of thinking and accuse developed countries of promoting humanitarian concerns when in fact their real motivation is protectionism. Given their past colonial histories, developing countries also resent the imposition of rules by developed countries. The environmental standards debate stems from the fact that freer trade and investment have meant that companies, and therefore production, have been encouraged to locate to countries where environmental protection is the most lax. Again, is the aim here to pressure developing countries into adopting tighter standards, or to impose protection on the products arriving from these countries?
ISSN 0085-6401 print; 1479-0270 online/03/030253-02 2003 South Asian Studies Association of Australia DOI: 10.1080/0085640032000178862

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SOUTH ASIA

Both are worthy concerns. But in each case, the real problem is one of protection of labour and the environment per senot trade. A joint Academy of the Social Sciences in AustraliaUniversity of New England (UNE Asia Centre) workshop held on 34 October 2002 in Armidale, New South Wales, explored and debated these issues in the context of one of the worlds poorest, yet most rapidly evolving, environmentsBangladesh. Revised versions of some of the papers delivered at that workshop are reproduced below. Written from different standpoints and across a range of disciplines, they attempt to provide informed answers to what are, arguably, the two most burning questions facing Bangladesh in the early twenty-rst century, namely: Have globalisation and international trade liberalisation promoted economic growth and economic stability in Bangladesh? And, Has global economic integration led (and will it lead) to a greater adherence to internationally accepted labour and environmental standards in Bangladesh?

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