ASEAN vows to oppose ILO's social clause

ASEAN vows to oppose ILO's social clause

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will resist staunchly a campaign by industrialized countries' to link trade to labor issues at June's International Labor Conference in Geneva, a minister said yesterday.

Indonesian Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief told journalists that he and his five ASEAN counterparts had agreed at a recent meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to jointly oppose the plan to apply International Labor Organization (ILO) standards to international trade.

The two-day meeting was held to forge a common ASEAN stand ahead of the ILO conference, Latief said.

The industrialized countries have been energetically promoting the plan, known as the ILO's social clause, under which minimum labor standards would be incorporated into international trade regulations. They are also hoping to push through a resolution compelling countries to abide by all the ILO conventions.

Latief said ASEAN countries had no objection to ILO labor standards but they insisted that they should be allowed flexibility in implementing them in accordance with conditions in their respective countries.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The minister said industrialized countries were using the ILO meeting and its labor standards to interfere in the internal affairs of developing countries.

"We (ASEAN ministers) agreed to oppose all actions linking labor standards and international trade as a means of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries," he said.

Latief said the industrialized countries could also expect stiff opposition from many other developing countries.

Labor ministers of the 112 strong Non-Aligned Movement had also agreed at their meeting in New Delhi in January to put up a common fight against the plan, he said. (rms)