Cheap labour preferred
International Viewpoint #258 July 1994
HE preamble to the recent-
T ly concluded GATT agreement states that: "...relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living,
### UNIONS restructuring of the international economy which is in progress. A briefing paper produced last year by the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF), on the campaign for a social clause, goes so far as to welcome the countries"; but eligibility for GSP benefits depends, among other things, on whether a country "has taken or is taking steps to afford to workers in that country, including any designated zone in that country, internationally recognised worker rights."
ROLAND ensuring full employment and a large and steadily gro- WOOD wing volume of real income... (our emphasis)."
Of course, what happens in practice is quite another matter, and in no way does the above amount to the adoption of a "social clause", which is what sectors of the international trade union movement (and not just those in semi or late industrialising countries) have been arguing for in relation to all international trade agreements. Indeed, this latest declaration of intent does not even go so far as those of the past. For example, the 1948 Havana Charter, which laid the basis for GATT, included a far more specific defence of workers' rights in so far as it stated that "...all countries have a common interest in the achievement and maintenance of fair labour standards [and] the improvement of wages and working conditions..." It was, however, never ratified. Nor has anything comparable been incorporated into international trade agreements since then.
liberalisation of world trade precisely because it will provide considerable incentives to countries to be more competitive. Their support for a social clause is based on the belief that minimum labour standards "will ensure that competitive pressures have a floor which all countries should be expected to respect", and further, that "by enabling unions to press for wage increases, [they] encourages employers to seek productivity improvements. [A social clause] would therefore help to ensure that demand and output [are increased for] the benefit of both employment and trade."
### Advocates
On that basis it is little wonder that the USA, for example, has been one of the strongest advocates of the social clause. At the Ministerial Meeting in 1986 which launched the Uruguay Round of GATT, it was the US representative, undoubtedly acting on pressure from the domestic union movement, who proposed that wor-
The social clause proposed for GATT was the following: "The Contracting Parties agree to take steps to ensure the observance of the minimum labour standards specified by an Advisory Committee to be established by the GATT and the
Among the ILO Standards to be put forward were:
• freedom of association;
• the right to bargain collectively;
• freedom trom forced labour:
• protection from child labour; and
• non-discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, etc.
These are amongst the most widely ratified ILo Standards - principles which governments of all countries, regardless of their stage of economic development, should legitimately be expected to observe. The minimum rights which the US operates under its GSP are identical save that the last is excluded, while included is "acceptable conditions of work with regard to minimum wages, hours of work and occupational safety and health."
### Legitimacy
"...fair labour standards ... improvement in working conditions... "
Question
By and large, for the international union bureaucracy the question is not whether GATT (or indeed the IMF and World Bank) should interfere in national policies — it accepts that it should - but whether minimum labour standards are (1) a legitimate element in international trade regulations and, (2) at least one guarantee that "fair" trade will ensue. This latter point is of particular concern since it involves a wholesale acceptance of the framework for the 14
Akers rights be included as a subject for negotiation.! Since GATT operates by consensus, minimal opposition was sufficient to stall the proposal. However, following indications that the subject would be taken up at a later stage, in both 1987 and 1990 the Us proposed at the GATT Council that a Working Group be established to consi der "the relationship between international trade and respect for internationally recognised worker rights."
The Us already operates such a scheme under its 1974 Trade Act. Its General System of Preferences (GSP) legislation provides "duty-free entry to eligible products from beneficiary developing
There can be little argument about the legitimacy, and necessity, of including (at least) minimum labour standards in international trade agreements. We do, after all, live in the real world. But this should not imply subjugation to the economic framework of those same agreements. This is the real problem which should be tackled by the international union movement.
One union which has raised this question is the left-wing Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers' Union (CMU) of Sri Lanka. At the 19th
1. "Union pressure" will have been channeled through the national federation, the AFL-CIO, which since the end of World War Il has, often quite perniciously, acted as if it were the interational union movement in totem and, further, an ambassedor for USA foreign policy. We can only hope that a number of the recent progressive developments within American unions will bring change in time.