[rossdavidh]

I don't think free trade between countries is so likely to foster peace. There are many examples, but "gunboat diplomacy" of the U.S. in Japan, and the Opium War in China, are two that come to mind. Even Russia's invasion of Ukraine was in large part because of the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU.

But, to your main point, most 3rd world countries don't have the resources to enforce or abide by 1st World EHS rules. That's understandable; we didn't have them in the 1st world when we were at those income levels, either. Plus, most of the trade between the 1st and 3rd worlds exists primarily in order to get lower costs, and most of those lower costs are due to the lack of EHS rules; if you eliminate the EHS arbitrage, you eliminate most of the trade. Which is fine by me, but just eliminating the trade directly is much more plausible than somehow forcing 3rd world countries to spend their money on 1st world levels of government regulatory apparatus.