Global Policy Forum

By Reneé Grawitzky

Government supports the introduction of core labour standards in multilateral trade agreements but says that the challenge is to ensure that their incorporation is not abused for protectionist purposes, says Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. Erwin was speaking at the opening of a workshop organised by his department to bring stakeholders together to develop common ground on government's position for the next round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Seattle in November.

A labour source said core labour standards had to be included on the agenda in such a way that they were not seen to be supporting the US. In recent years the US has been pushing strongly for labour standards to be on the agenda but this has been strongly resisted by developing countries which have viewed this as being for protectionist purposes. The labour source said there was a need to move the WTO away from being in favour of transnational corporations and more in favour of global citizens.

Erwin believed a workable relationship could be developed between the WTO and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in this regard. Erwin warned labour, business and nongovernmental organisations that the next round of trade talks would be tough. He stressed that the need for SA to take the lead in the debate on "new issues" which could be included in the WTO negotiating agenda. These issues could include links between trade and the environment, intellectual property rights, investment rules and competition policies. Despite calls by labour for government to review its commitment to reducing trade tariffs, Erwin said government's policy decision was a firm one. He said however that government was committed to dialogue in the next round of policy debates on tariff reforms after 2002.

The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has threatened to strike in response to the current spate of job losses. The federation believes that government's tariff reforms are contributing to job losses. Despite Cosatu's strong opposition to this the federation was not present at the workshop yesterday and has apparently requested additional time to submit its proposals to Erwin on government's approach to the next round of talks. National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) representative Henk Campher said government's focus should not be on further tariff reduction. Campher said the country had already implemented tariff reductions faster than its WTO obligations. He said government should focus on nontariff barriers which were inhibiting market access and trade.

Discussions yesterday did focus on market access and the fact that it was not the tariffs which were the problem but rather non-tariff barriers such as the implementation of anti-dumping laws and the abuse of quotas. Erwin did refer to this issue and questioned the manner in which some countries used quotas to prevent imports. The consultative conference continues today and will focus on core labour standards.

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