Discuss the following topic: "Should trade restrictions be used to influence human rights issues?" For many years human rights activists have criticized the U.S.government for not using its trade leverage with countries such as China in order to improve human rights in those countries. Business interests, on the other hand, oppose any connection between trade and human rights issues.
Instructions:
1- To read the point and counter-point of this argument and express your own opinion on this topic :
Some countries do not protect human rights in the same manner as the United States. At times, the United States should threaten to restrict U.S. imports from or investment in a particular country if it does not correct human rights violations. The United States should use its large international trade and investment as leverage to ensure that human rights violations do not occur. Other countries with a history of human rights violations are more likely to honor human rights if their economic conditions are threatened.
International trade and human rights are two separate issues. International trade should not be used as the weapon to enforce human rights. Firms engaged in international trade should not be penalized by the human rights violations of a government. If the United States imposes trade restrictions to enforce human rights, the country will retaliate. Thus, the U.S. firms that export to that country will be adversely affected. By imposing trade sanctions, the U.S. government is indirectly penalizing the MNCs that are attempting to conduct business in specific foreign countries. Trade sanctions cannot solve every difference in beliefs or morals between the more developed countries and the developing nations. By restricting trade, the United States will slow down the economic progress of developing countries.
2- Two paragraph.
3- While in the discussion, read the point and counter-point which I have provided on this topic, then click on the forum in which you'd like to comment.