USA will raise rights issues at WTO

JAKARTA (JP): The U.S. said yesterday it would raise issues such as human rights and labor at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Singapore this December.

This could set the stage for confrontation with ASEAN and developing countries, which have flatly rejected the inclusion of non-trade issues at the conference.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said a dialogue on the relationship between trade and labor would be one of Washington's priorities at the meeting.

"Our approach recognizes that different countries have different comparative advantages, including different wage rates," Christopher said during the start of the two-day ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences.

Yesterday's meeting brought together ASEAN members -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and their 10 dialog partners -- Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia, the United States and the European Union.

Earlier this week, President Soeharto asked fellow members of ASEAN to resist the West's pressure to link environmental and human rights issues with international trade talks.

Christopher stressed that "workers everywhere should have the benefit of internationally recognized basic workers rights that we have all endorsed, such as freedom of association and an end to child labor exploitation and forced labor".

He said ensuring such protection was essential to maintaining a consensus for further trade liberalization in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Supporting Christopher's view, Manuel Marin, vice president of the European Commission, said the European Union would continue to press for the "respect of fundamental social rights, particularly concerning the banning of forced labor".

Marin, however, said it was "in no way intended to put into question the comparative advantage developing countries enjoy because of their lower labor costs".

The Singapore conference will be attended by more than 120 countries to take stock of the progress towards global free trade under a timetable set by the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks and also examine future challenges.

ASEAN foreign ministers, who ended their annual meeting here last Sunday, resolved to oppose "any attempt to include issues which were not trade-related" in the Singapore meeting's agenda.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday that the first WTO ministerial conference "should not be trammeled by the introduction of issues extraneous to trade".

He warned that such issues would "not only complicate an already complex WTO agenda, it would also denigrate the developing countries and eventually debilitate the organization itself".

Developed countries contended that competition from products made with cheap labor in Asia is leading to job losses in their markets. Developing nations, on the other hand, argue that efforts to link labor with trade issues will blunt their competitive edge.

Japan, however, is an exception. Minister of Foreign Affairs Yukihiko Ikeda, who represented Japan at the dialogue with ASEAN yesterday, did not mention anything related to labor issues in his statements.

"I think our position is in between. We are not so much interested in discussing labor standards or human rights (at the WTO meeting). But we are very much interested in having subjects related to investment," Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Taizo Watanabe told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

ASEAN has opposed a multilateral investment treaty being pushed by the developed countries. It contended that the agreement would lay down guarantees for the protection of foreign investments in recipient nations, but neglect the interests of the latter.

Speaking of security concerns, Indonesia's Alatas yesterday noted that while there has been relative security in the Asia- Pacific, "the world as yet is not really a peaceful place".

He pointed to the continuing international adjustments being made in this new global climate, but noted that issues such as disarmament had yet to be resolved.

"ASEAN is concerned that the disarmament agenda is not advancing as expeditiously as it should," Alatas said.

He cited ASEAN's efforts to conclude a nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty signed in Bangkok in December.

Washington has continued to refuse to accede to the treaty's protocol, citing concern over several elements of the treaty.

Despite this, Warren Christopher asserted that the U.S. was committed to non-proliferation and welcomed ASEAN's strong support for a global non-proliferation regime.

"We remain committed to examining ways to resolve our differences over the proposed Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone," Christopher said. He then reaffirmed that "the United States is and will remain a Pacific Power".

While the United States remains ambivalent in its clear support, Russian Foreign Minister Y. Primakov said his country "fully supports" ASEAN's nuclear free zone.

"We intend to continue cooperation in refining the text protocol of the treaty," he said

South Korean Foreign Minister Gong Ro-myung noted the importance of consultations such as the one currently being held given that in the region, "there still remains elements of instability and potential conflict".

He pointed to tensions in the Korean peninsula, territorial disputes in the South China Sea as well as the overall military buildup in the region.

After yesterday's plenary session, the ASEAN members, represented by the foreign ministers, held concurrent meetings with individual dialog partners. (rid/pwn/mds)

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