International trade - Assignment Example

With due consideration to the various assumptions made by John Miller in his article, the discussion henceforth will intend to discuss the impact of the then working condition towards the development of the nations. Therefore, the evaluation of the arguments will consider the theories of Mercantilism, Liberalism and Marxism to define the actual notion presented through the article in relation to labour and economic development. Discussion Position of the Article in the Wider Debates in International Political Economy The phenomenon considered in the article concentrates on the Anti-Sweatshop movement held during the 1990s by young students, especially in American and European industrial regions.

The sole concern behind this movement was to mitigate the violation of labour rules in respect of wages, child labour practices and safety measures along with health related issues (United States General Accounting Office, 1988). In this context, the term ‘Sweatshop’ is referred as the working conditions or rather environment where labours need to work for extra hours on a regular basis following rules which apparently disregard human values in relation to the minimum wage rate, or minimum working hours (Arnold & Hartman, 2010).

The article further presents a view on the positive role of low wages for the labours working in Sweatshop which can be understood with reference to the Liberal approach of international trade theory. The two most apparent assumptions considered under this theory can be identified in terms that liberalisation denotes a massive inclusion of the government in deliberating the rules and policies concerning employment. This further exhibits the significance of freedom to be enjoyed by labourers through human rights and the role of free markets in the overall development of the economy (Slaughter, 1995).

Emphasising on the liberal economic theory, the discussion of the article tends to elaborate on the economists’ view in favour of the imposition of legal codes to ensure that every factory abodes by the policies which in turn guide the ‘freedom of human rights’. The article further elaborates on the fact that the employees of factories should be treated with equality and liberty in their workplaces with the aid of proper safety and healthcare measures in order to mitigate the conflicts arising and thereby ensuring better economic growth.

As connoted by Miller (2003), “What to do about sweatshops? This is not a difficult question for most main-stream economists to answer. Just enforce law, they say” (pp. 131). However, on the contrary, the discussion in the article also deliberated that a certain degree of freedom was enjoyed by the labourers by willingly opting for such hard works to earn a relatively better pay than that offered by other sectors. The discussed theories of the article also states the economists’ views about the overall labour market development so as to improve economic conditions which can be illustrated with the help of Mercantilism approach to international trade.

The Mercantilism approach attempts to pay major attention to the significance