Labour standards and ILO’s effectiveness in the governance of globalization

As Riccardo Faini wrote in the paper that gave rise to this VII Commission's Working Group, “… today we can see the need for a profound reform of international institutions that eliminate or at least reduce the inequalities that penalize developing countries, one that simultaneously allows the maintenance of an adequate supply of global public goods in terms of social, fiscal and environmental policies but that also does not compromise aspects of the Bretton Woods system which have contributed enormously to a growth in incomes and a reduction of poverty over the past 60 years." The following notes try to develop a framework of informations and reflections about ILO’s mission and performance, with special reference to the issues of trade liberalization and labour standards.