Linking labor and trade issues unfair: Economist

JAKARTA (JP): Political and economic self-interests are motivating industrialized countries' unfair campaign linking labor rights issues with international trade, according to noted economist Mari Pangestu.

"There are no strong reasons to link labor and trade," she told The Jakarta Post during a break in a seminar on social clause, an internationally accepted term for labor issues, and international trade yesterday.

And the reasons given by developed countries to pressurize developing nations into accepting the planned inclusion of the social clause in some of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) decrees, are also weak, she said.

The one-day seminar was jointly organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the International Non- Governmental Organization Forum on Indonesian Development. It was attended by labor activists and a number of intellectuals, including Sofjan Wanandi, Pande Radja Silalahi, Franz Magnis- Suseno, Hasnan Habib, Hadi Soesastro and Juwono Sudarsono.

"Strong political and economic motives are behind the social clause issue," she said. "Industrialized countries only want to protect their products from imports to their domestic markets and to ease their unemployment problems."

She cited the unemployment rates in the United States and European countries as being around 10 percent.

She said the social clause issue was first discussed in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) preparatory committee meeting for the round of trade negotiations in Uruguay in 1986.

"As evidenced by recent statements made at the G-7 Labor Ministers Meeting in France, this issue will probably be taken up again in the WTO Ministerial Meeting scheduled to be held in Singapore in December," she said.

Labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan had a different view. The chairman of the unrecognized Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) hailed the linkage of labor and international trade because he said it could force governments to improve labor conditions in their countries.

"It will force governments to comply with the International Labor Organization's (ILO) conventions on workers' basic rights. It will also strengthen the workers' bargaining position," he said.

He cited a recent labor survey by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions which places Indonesia among countries with the worst labor record, third after Myanmar and Ethiopia.

Muchtar pointed out that workers, who play an important role in national development, have yet to enjoy the fruits of robust economic growth.

The World Trade Organization and the International Labor Organization should jointly establish an independent agency to monitor labor conditions in all countries, he said.

"The agency should then give recommendations to the trade organization to impose political and economic sanctions on countries violating their labor standards and ILO conventions," he said.

Mari disagreed. She said that rather than letting industrialized countries impose the social clause, it's better to strengthen the ILO so that it is able to enforce all of its conventions.

At the local level, non-governmental organizations should continue to fight for workers' rights, she said.

Indonesia, in meetings with other developing countries, has repeatedly refused to accept the concept of a social clause and accused industrialized countries of protectionism. (rms)