
Issue No 35		15 October 1999

International

Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labour?

By Ellen Gould - Canadian labour activist

Driving the cost of labour down appears to be the main priority of the World Trade Organisation

"It [the Internet] will destroy one of the great tyrannies of the past, the tyranny of location. Your accountant may now live anywhere, and already the WTO is saving you a lot of money by outsourcing translation -- thanks to electronic transmission we can use translators working at home in countries all over the world."

From the "THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES", a Speech by Mike Moore, Director-General, World Trade Organization, September, 1999 (available on the Internet at http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/mm6.htm

So here we have the WTO Director General's bold vision of the future - employers scouring the globe to get work done on the cheap by home-based workers. And he holds up the WTO as a model of how this is being done.

Increasing corporate power to shift services work anywhere in the world is the focus of the new round of negotiations on General Agreement on Services. Anything that limits the "freedom" to do this will be a target.

In preparation for the millennium round of negotiations, the WTO Secretariat has carried out a global investigation to identify any measures governments take that might restrain the corporations' ability to shift service work and reduce what they pay workers.

But do the WTO staff really identify trade barriers as problems because employers cannot pay the lowest possible wages? After all, their own salaries are paid by the taxes of workers in WTO member countries. Shouldn't they at least pretend to be neutral rather than hostile to labour interests?

Perhaps on the assumption that few people would bother to go through them, the WTO has "de-restricted" and posted on their Web site the background papers its Secretariat has prepared to frame the Millennium Round negotiations. Here are some samples of what the Secretariat says, and the places where you can find the original WTO documents so you can check for yourself:

In the retail field, the WTO Secretariat identifies this "Explicit Barrier to Trade":

"33. Given the high labour intensity of distribution (especially in retailing), the sector is affected by limitations on the movement of natural persons [i.e. people]. Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from minimizing labour costs through international recruitment." Source: "Distribution Services", Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998 Available on the Internet at: http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm

The WTO staff see a need for employers to be able to recruit foreign workers in the area of environmental services, such as garbage collection, as well:

"30. Given the relatively high labour intensity of some environmental services, such as refuse disposal, the sector is affected by limitations on the movement of natural persons. Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from minimizing labour costs through international recruitment." "Environmental Services", Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998 Available on the Internet at: http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm

Of course, there is another way that nationality requirements could be viewed, such as "Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from threatening to relocate if their workers do not accept low wages"or "Nationality requirements ensure that corporations do not engage in a race to the bottom in terms of working conditions." or "Nationality requirements ensure local communities gain at least some benefits from foreign investment." It all depends on your point of view.

In the health field, the WTO staff say the biggest benefit to be gained is through opening up health services jobs to foreign workers:

"60. (T)he most significant benefits from trade are unlikely to arise from the construction and operation of hospitals, etc., but their staffing with more skilled, more efficient and/or less costly personnel than might be available on the domestic labour market." - "Health and Social Services" Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998, available on the Internet at: http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm

In order to free up the ability of the firms to "minimize labour costs through international recruitment", WTO negotiatiors on services will discuss rules to make it easier for foreign workers to get temporary work visas. Work is already going on in the WTO to make service employees as interchangeable as possible by eliminating differences in qualification requirements, and reducing these to no more than is necessary in the view of WTO authorities.

The experience with NAFTA shows that giving the maximum flexibility to corporations to hire cheap labour does not help workers in either industrialized or "developing" nations.

(See Pulling Apart: The Deterioration of Employment and Income in North America Under Free Trade, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

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  Issue 35 contents

Interview: Strategic Responses
NSW Police Association president Mark Burgess has worked in the coal mines and the waterfront - now he�s the public face of NSW police

Republic: Negative Campaigning
If the Republic fails, one of the main complaints which should be leveled against the ARM is its refusal to play dirty.

Unions: Interpreter smooths the way for Kosovar Refugees
�The people really appreciate what Australia has done for them but they still want to go home," said Ariana Biba, a HREA member who has been worked recently as an interpreter assisting newly arrived refugees from Kosovo.

Education: Count Yorga's Evil Plot
NTEU president Carolyn Allport looks at Kemp's brazen attack on univestities and warns the battle is not won yet.

Safety: Death in the Snowy
Beyond the engineering achievements of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, there is the tragic story of those workers killed or seriously injured in the construction of the project.

International: Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labour?
Driving the cost of labour down appears to be the main priority of the World Trade Organisation

History: The Importance of Tradition
Historical documents bring us into closer contact with the past and its concerns as this 1945 extract from the NSW Nurses Association journal, The Lamp, shows.

Review: McLibel - The Mice That Roared
This documentary is the classic tale of the little guys against the system, a battle for the right to dissent.

Satire: Government Privatises Numbers
Prime Minister John Howard released a new policy on numerals yesterday, to bring them in in line with the Liberal Party's plan to privatise �Pretty much everything before we lose office.�

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