By raising the two issues, therefore, Ruggiero has shown himself to be a clever negotiator with definite interests. What then of the social clause question if this gambit actually works. It would be converted from one of multilaterally linking overall market access with questions of conditions of labour, to bilaterally curbing imports of goods based on specific labour practices like the use of child labour. For the government of India, already facing bilateral pressure on the child labour issue, this may appear a concession. But for more well-meaning defenders of linkage to would amount to surrendering the confidence of local movements as means of implementing social goals to a set of external agencies that make symbolic, while subordinating the question of labour conditions to the more determining interests of finance capital.
Linkage is leverage.