WEAK DECLARATION ON LABOUR RIGHTS IN THE WTO
(International Union Rights n. 1 1997)
After much debate, a compromise has been reached in relation to the stance to be taken by the Ministerial Declaration to come out of the December 1996 meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Singapore. The question of labour rights has been hotly contested in the face of
opposition of a number of Governments ranging from the UK to India. The US had threatened to veto the whole declaration if no mention of labour rights were made.
Paragraph 4 of the final declaration of the 1996 Singapore Meeting of the WTO includes the following statement on core labour rights:
"We renew our commitment to the observance of internationally recognised core labour standards. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the competent body to set and deal with these standards, and we affirm our support for its work in promoting them. We believe that economic growth and development fostered by increased trade and further trade liberalisation contribute to the promotion of these standards. We reject the use of labour standards for protectionist purposes, and agree that the comparative advantage of countries, particularly low-wage developing countries, must in no way be put into question. In this regard, we note that the WTO and ILO Secretariats will continue their existing collaboration."
From the perspective of organised labour, the declaration is disappointing as the possibility of trade sanctions against countries who systematically violate labour rights is rejected and there is no express provision for a working group to follow up the question of labour tights.
Full information about the issue of labour rights in the context of the WTO can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.wto96.org/news/labou/index.html.
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