Developed states differ over social clauses
SINGAPORE (JP): Industrialized countries have not agreed to include social clauses such as human and labor rights in the World Trade Organization (WTO) agenda.
Canada and Italy supported yesterday the United States proposal to raise social clauses at the inaugural WTO ministerial meeting now underway in Singapore, but Britain and Germany were against it.
"While Britain is as strongly opposed to child labor and forced labor as anyone else, we see no case for taking trade measures in support of social standards," Head of British Trade and Industry Department Ian Lang told the plenary session of the WTO meeting yesterday.
Lang said the linkage between trade and social clauses would only weaken the economies of the targeted countries and make them less able to remedy social problems.
He said Britain took the view that the International Labor Organization (ILO) was the appropriate forum for promoting labor standards, not the WTO.
"We know it is also the view of most other countries around the world. Let us not divide the WTO on this issue," Lang said.
The United States has been calling for the first WTO ministerial conference to discuss the relationship between labor standards and trade, to show U.S. workers -- fearful that free trade means less jobs for them -- that the WTO is aware of their concerns.
Developing countries led by the seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- have vehemently rejected the possibility of talks on labor standards at the WTO conference.
Indonesian Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo said at the afternoon plenary session that linking trade and labor standards risked of creating a new form of protectionism.
ILO
"While we attach great importance to the uplifting of the standards of our labor, we continue to believe that the ILO is the most appropriate forum to discuss the issue and not the WTO," Tunky said.
German Minister of Economics Gunter Rexrodt asked other developed countries not to raise social clauses at the WTO because it could destroy the WTO's credibility.
"We, the industrialized countries, have to accept the competitive advantage of less developed low wage countries," Rexrodt said at yesterday's session.
Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said at the session that her country's proposal for labor standards was not meant to rob developing countries of their comparative advantage in low labor costs.
"We are not proposing an agreement on minimum wages, changes that could take away the comparative advantage of low-wage producers, or the use of protectionist measures to enforce labor standards.
"We are proposing that the concerns of working people -- people who fear that trade liberalization will lead to distortion -- be addressed in a modest work program in the WTO," Barshefsky said.
Her proposal for linking trade and labor standards was supported by other developed countries, especially Canada and Italy.
Canadian Minister for International Trade Art Eggleton said while the ILO was the primary forum for dealing with labor standards, the WTO should also respond to these concerns.
Italian Minister of Foreign Trade Augusto Fantozzi said his country paid special attention to labor standards. He said closer cooperation between ILO and WTO could help achieve the best possible living and working conditions.
He said he was disappointed the director general of ILO had not been invited to speak at the WTO conference. (rid)