TUC calls for Bali world trade talks to protect workers' rights and public services

Ahead of next week's World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady has sent the following letter to Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who has overall responsibility for UK Government policy on global trade.

Her letter is part of a global trade union lobby aimed at ensuring the Bali meeting promotes decent work, promotes international development, and protects public services. Global unions have issued a more detailed statement (referred to in Frances' letter) ahead of the summit.

9^th WTO Ministerial Conference Bali, 3-6 December 2013

The 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali offers a critical opportunity for the Government to honour the developmental mandate given to the WTO in Doha to develop multilateral trade rules that are fair, inclusive and promote sustainable development. I enclose a global union statement on the Bali agenda, but wanted to emphasise some key points for the TUC.

Above all, we urge the Government to call for a trade system which promotes Decent Work.  The WTO and ILO should jointly undertake impact assessments of negotiating proposals to make sure they lead to quality as well as a quantity of jobs.  Trade rules must not lead to a lowering of labour standards.   To make sure core labour standards are upheld, the Trade Policy Review Mechanism should start taking into account labour standards violations in export sectors in the Reviews of different member states.

Multilateral trade rules must also work to promote development by allowing for principles of food security and poverty reduction in rules on agriculture. Inequality between developed and less developed countries must also be tackled by reducing export subsidy commitments in developed countries and prohibiting the use of tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on products originating in Least Developed Countries.

The increased market access being negotiated through the Trade in Services Agreement, must protect public services through a clear and unambiguous general exception -  all public services and utilities, including education and health care, must be excluded from any specific commitments. This agreement must not lead to a restriction of policy space for government which would limit its ability to pursue policies for social, environmental and labour protection.

It is also important that the UK government promotes sustainable development within its other multilateral trade negotiations taking place in parallel to WTO negotiations.  The Information Technology Agreement (ITA II) risks domestic manufacturing and loss of growth potential in higher value-added segments of information technology manufacturing. It is important that developing countries, and particularly LDCs, should enjoy market access benefits on a non-reciprocal basis even if they do not join the ITA-II. 

Finally these negotiations must be transparent, accessible and democratically accountable negotiations at national and international level for progress to be made towards greater democracy and inclusion and better global governance.

I hope that the Government’s representatives at the Bali WTO Ministerial can take these points into account, and I would welcome a report on the progress made.

Yours sincerely,

FRANCES O’GRADY

General Secretary