Corrective Services

Unions demand WTO impact review

Cancun, Mexico, 10 September 2003 (ICFTU News): At a trade union conference which took place on the eve of the WTO 5th Ministerial meeting, labour leaders met with WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, South African Trade Minister Alec Erwin, Deputy United States Trade Representative Josette Shiner and other major trade officials, and told them their priorities for the WTO Conference.

The labour movement made a strong demand for the employment and social dimension of trade to be addressed here in Cancun and for governments to follow-up on their commitments to provide better treatment to developing countries in the world trading system, in particular by phasing out agricultural export subsidies.

Speaking on the behalf of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the world's largest trade union group, Guy Ryder said :

"Due to the already agreed phase-out of the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing at the end of next year, millions of jobs are being lost in world textiles trade as a result of low-wage competition, and that is going to get worse in the years to come."

"The jobs that are left are all too often in the exploitative world of the export processing zones that are proliferating around the world. The WTO must come to terms with this problem and undertake a review,together with the ILO and World Bank, of the impact on employment and working conditions", Ryder added.

Rejecting the claim that industrialised countries would use labour standards against poorer countries as a protectionist measure, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy added that : "To reject discussing core labour standards at the World Trade Organisation is simply not good for the WTO and is not good for developing countries."

Union officials also called for steps to protect public services in the GATS negotiations and for a rewriting of the GATS treaty to incorporate the right to regulate. They also underlined the need for the WTO to reach its decisions in conditions of fairness for all WTO members and
transparency.

For the full text of Pascal Lamy's speech:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218422

For more information on the trade union movement position and WTO activities:
http://www.global-unions.org/globalisation

To view photos of the trade unions activities in Cancun (free of
rights): http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218392

The ICFTU represents 158 million workers in 231 affiliated

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005