Question

'By engaging in international trade, the developing countries expose their workers to exploitation by multi-national corporations.'

What do you think about this statement? Please write a short essay about your thoughts.

Answer 1

Developing countries engage in international trade and it creates job opportunities for their workers to work in MNC setups. Here, the working environment in the MNCs are governed by the local labor laws, work environment related laws and their own corporate governance. Hence, the focus falls back to the developing countries to develop and implement and enforce robust labor laws, employment laws that can protect their workers. If the domestic laws are robust, then MNC enterprises will not be able to exploit their workers.

By engaging in international trade, MNCs come to the developing countries and start their operations. It creates job opportunities for the local workers and they can work to earn their livings. It is always good to work in these MNCs, in comparison to the work in informal economies of the developing countries that give no rights to the workers, no legal remedies, no any health coverage and no any benefits or written employment contract. But, jobs in MNCs will always come with certain structural (via skills), institutional (unions)  & social (Groups) power balance to help workers claim their rights. It is not about the exploitation, rather it is about the due diligence from the side of government authorities that should be worried upon.

There can be the emergence of issues such as paying less money than committed, longer working hours or not providing safe working environment such as gloves, glasses and other safety equipment. But, it is down to the lack of governing laws that is manipulated by MNCs and they get away with it. So, the notion that international trade will make MNCs exploit workers of the domestic countries, is not correct.
It is only spread by those who fear of competition, superior quality and loss of their own business.