Linking labor and trade issues unfair: Economist

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)