This paper was presented at an informal meeting on Trade and Labour Standards organised by the Netherlands government in the Hague, on 19-20 September 1994. The objective of the meeting was to foster a first informal exchange of views among trade policy officials. Professor of Labour Economics at Cornell Univeristy, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Gary Fields has written extensively on the subject of trade and labour standards. In a larger context, the OECD is currently working on a report of possible links between trade and labour standards, to be presented to the meeting of the OECD Council at the Ministerial level in 1995.