Put labour standards and development at the heart of EU trade agreements
White Band Day 2007 TUC demand
Listen to the South!
Support global standards
ASK YOUR MEP to support a requirement to implement core labour standards in EU trade agreements, and to oppose trade agreements which would hamper development
With little progress in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development round of multilateral trade talks the European Union is placing increased emphasis on two sets of bilateral trade negotiations.
The first deals with the negotiation of regional free trade agreements (RTAs) with a number of different countries and blocs of countries. Negotiations are starting with South Korea, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations, and there are also already ongoing talks with a number of other countries and blocs including the Gulf Cooperation Community and Mercosur.
The second involve six groups of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. These Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are supposed to be development friendly trade agreements which do not demand the same degree of reciprocal market opening that regular free trade agreements do. EPAs will replace the existing Cotonou agreement which sets the terms of trade for 92 ACP countries with the EU. They are supposed to be in place by the end of 2007 due to the WTO finding Cotonou to be in breach of its rules as the ACP countries (mainly former colonies of EU members) gained preferential market access to European markets.
Labour standards
The international trade union movement along with many NGOs has serious concerns about both sets of trade negotiations and their potential impact on employment and working conditions. With regard to both RTAs and EPAs we are calling for labour standards, in particular the ILO's core labour standards[1] , to be included in all agreements with the same level of enforcement and support for their implementation as commercial clauses such as those that defend companies' intellectual property rights.
This position is supported by the entire international trade union movement including unions in both developed and developing countries. We argue for this position because we believe that core labour standards are essential to achieve decent work[2] which in turn is essential to any serious strategy to achieve sustainable development.
Trade agreements have in the past undermined labour standards by failing to give any weight to the rights of those who produce the goods and services which are traded because countries desperate to attract investment and increase their exports can slash labour standards, for example by not applying their own labour laws in 'Economic Processing Zones' without it being deemed a trade distorting measure. This has led to fears of a 'race to the bottom' as countries feel they must lower labour standards to compete with each other.
Both the British Government and the EU have made positive statements about the need to include respect for labour standards in the agreements (as well as other human rights and environmental standards), but they seem far less inclined to actually push hard for them in the negotiations behind closed doors. They often state that developing country governments object on the grounds that they think labour standards are cover for protectionist polices by which the EU seeks to undermine their competitive advantage in terms of lower labour costs etc. Currently the EU even in its public pronouncements is saying that if included labour standards clauses should not have the same enforceable status as commercial clauses. Unions of course argue that the interests of workers should have at least the same status as the interests of business. There is now precedent for this in some bilateral agreements being negotiated by the United States where pressure from the trade union movement has secured far better clauses than the EU is currently proposing.
Development
There are also a wide range of other concerns about EPA negotiations and the potential negative effects they could have on development in some of the world's poorest countries.
Despite the stated intention that they should not be fully reciprocal EU negotiators appear to be taking an aggressive stance on market opening for European countries in return for allowing duty and quota free access into the EU. This has the potential to destroy large numbers of jobs in industries that are still developing and could not at this stage survive direct competition from major European multinationals.
Many ACP countries also rely heavily on income from import taxes and duties to fund public services (which in many cases are already desperately under funded) and with out alternative sources of income unsequenced removal of such duties and tariffs could drastically reduce money available for services such as health and education.
The international trade union movement are therefore calling, alongside action on labour standards, for far greater assessment of the potential impact of all EU trade agreements on employment and public services and for trade unions and broader civil society to be given a far greater role in the negotiations process. The fact that EPA negotiations are taking place entirely in secret with all documents remaining confidential is hardly likely to inspire public confidence.
[1] Freedom from child labour, freedom from forced labour, no discrimination in the workplace and the right to join a trade union and bargain collectively.
[2] The ILO define Decent Work as the right to employment, core labour standards, social protection and social dialogue
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