In their official statements to the World Trade Organisation's
(WTO)
ministerial conference yesterday, both US Trade Representative
Charlene Barshefsky and EU Commissioner for Trade Policy
Sir Leon
Brittan warned that the failure to take into account the
social and
environmental impacts of free trade could lead to a loss
of support
for liberalisation.
''Trade liberalisation can occur only with domestic support,"
said
Barshefsky. ''That support, and support for the WTO, will
surely
erode if we cannot address the concerns of working people
and demonstrate
that trade is a path to tangible prosperity."
Barshefsky said the US is not seeking an agreement on minimum
wages,
the use of protectionist measures to enforce labour standards,
or
other changes that would take away the comparative advantage
of
countries that rely on cheap labour, but rather ''a modest
work
programme in the WTO".
''Concerns about the environment, about labour standards
and other
apparently domestic political issues are now the legitimate
concern
of the WTO because they are the concerns of our constituents,"
Brittan
said. ''Only when the WTO is seen to meet the aspirations
of our
constituents can we be sure of keeping the way open for
continued
trade liberalisation."
However, delegates from developing countries, and also
some developed
countries such as the Britain, continued their opposition
to any
linkage between the WTO and labour standards, human rights
or a
so-called ''social clause".
In his opening statement, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Amnuay
Viravan
stated: ''There is no relevancy in forcing linkages of
this [labour]
issue with trade, unless ... there is an ulterior motive
to bring in
the issue as disguised protectionism.
''All basic relevant elements of core labour standards
mentioned have
long been recognised by and witnessed in Thailand," Amnuay
said.
''There is clear evidence to support this remark."
Several influential non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
from
developing countries - including the Penang-based Third
World Network
and Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South - also disagreed
with
establishing linkages between trade and labour standards.
Martin Khor, director of the Third World Network, said
that the
Singapore conference was supposed to be set up for the
reviewing and
implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements under the
General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) made in 1994. There
are too
many problems with the current system, he said, to start
looking at ''new
issues".
Southern Hemisphere NGOs are particularly opposed to a
multilateral
agreement on investment, but they also said that labour
issues would
be better handled by the UN's International Labour Organisation
(ILO)
than the WTO. ''The labour issue is just being promoted
by developed
countries for publicity purposes," said Roberto Possio,
a Uruguayan
academic.