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Repeal "Ethics in International Trade"
Category: Repeal | GAR#118 | Proposed by: Sciongrad

The General Assembly,

CONDEMNING the detrimental nature of internationally mandated protectionism on the world economy as imposed by GAR#118, Ethics in International Trade, especially considering the ineffective means by which the original resolutions seeks to accomplish its goals,

ALARMED that the World Assembly's economic intervention may disrupt the value of goods based on traditional factors caused by competition and instead place monetary value in social and ethical issues,

CONCERNED that a company may fire workers, depriving them of what livelihood they had, in an attempt to offset the costs of the tariff, thus worsening the conditions of the very laborers that GAR#118 seeks to help,

REMINDING members nations of the obligations incumbent upon them to comply with extant World Assembly legislation which deals with issues of social justice and the fair treatment of workers (in greater detail than the conditions enumerated in clause 1b), such as GAR#4, "Restrictions on Child Labor," GAR#7, "Workplace Safety Standards Act," GAR#21, "Living Wage Act," GAR#23, "Ban on Slavery and Trafficking," GAR#43, "WA Labor Relations Act," GAR#107, "Clean Water Act," GAR#176, "Disability Welfare Act," and GAR#234, "Freedom to Read and Learn," and others,

CONFUSED as to the purpose of the wildly redundant and expensive system of assessment provided under the ITA's mandate, considering the issues of clause 1b are eclipsed entirely by the aforementioned guarantees provided by the World Assembly,

CONSIDERING, with the foregoing obligations already incumbent on member nations in mind, that the ITA's focus must be on non-member nations, despite not having the jurisdiction to properly assess the conditions of laborers in such nations, as they cannot be compelled to comply with investigations into their labor conditions by the World Assembly,

RECOGNIZING that non-member nations willing to submit to ITA investigation are likely to already have labor standards at least comparable to those stipulated in GAR#118, whereas non-member nations that refuse to allow investigation cannot be properly assessed anyway,

AWARE that the magnitude of information that the ITA would have to regularly assess regarding literally every product and commodity produced would inevitably result in inaccurate or inequitable rulings based off of limited information,

DISPUTING the need for a bureaucracy mired by redundancy and superfluous procedures and whose mandate is crippled by its inability to properly perform its duties in non-member nations, making for a costly and thoroughly unworkable expense on member nations which benefits neither member nations, nor the workers that it seeks to aid,

ASSERTING that it is a duty of the World Assembly to facilitate worthwhile goals, such as promoting the economic well-being of member nations, not putting member nations at an economic disadvantage by instituting idealistic policies that serve as an active detriment to member nations,

Hereby,

REPEALS General Assembly Resolution #118, Ethics in International Trade.
Delegate's opinion: I'll add this at a less distracted time. Be expectant. It'll probably a yes... So many goddamned repeals.

No. In real life I'm mostly against capitalistic policies such as this which place economic gain over morality and ethics, simply because you get horrific pollution, abuse of workers and eventually strikes and system collapse.

It's true but this is often a mixed section in the WA... Each nation can still make individual laws on this subject.. Which is where we run into the difficulty... We have our natsovs (part of why we have so many repeals) who do believe that every nation shouldn't be confined to rules like this in the WA... And even within natsovs we've got the super extreme ones and the less extreme ones... As always there will be in belief groups... Business and money is one of the biggest pushes for natsovs. Usually. Complicated area... Though in truth I find myself overall In agreement with you and am against this  repeal.

* Wintermoot votes for the repeal.

Whilst I completely understand your point about NatSovs, my main argument against that is as follows:

IF everything is left to the individual states you have something along the lines of what could be found in the real world in the late 19th and 20th centuries - effectively an every man for himself system which benefits no-one but those who are born into positions of power or wealth. In a world wherein 90%+ of the population fall outside of this category, how can it possibly be considered right to allow such practices?

Oversight by a extra-national body is almost a necessity in the modern age and we've already seen moves towards it with the League of Nations in the 20th Century and its replacement, the United Nations. However, neither of these bodies have anything like the hypothetical power that the World Assembly holds over nations within NS, because the WA can force nations to abide by the passage of its bills.

My main problem with the current set up of the WA is the fact that it seems dedicated to removing anything that purports to place limits on the sovereignty of the individual nation, and whilst I'm all for individual liberty as a defining part of my personal philosophy, I'm very much in favour of an oversight body purely because individual nations cannot be trusted to protect what's important over what they want right now.

The current materialistic consumerist approach of nations in the WA really irritates me as I'd honestly expect people on a game where you can do effectively what you want to go in for the ethical and moral, but I guess that's just me. I mean, saving the planet and helping everyone in your nation? Nah I guess I'll just go earn some more cash but whatever.

Tl;Dr NatSovs cause problems, but I understand their principles. I disagree with their goal of removing anything that even slightly affects nation sovereignty, however; some restrictions just have to be placed for the good of everyone.