Labor, Enviros Want Hearing at WTO Meeting
10/29/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Labor, Enviros Want Hearing at WTO
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 29, 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, October 29, 1999 (ENS) - In advance of planned
demonstrations at the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO)
meeting, environmental and labor groups say they want trade ministers
to consider their issues before committing to negotiations on
tariffs, subsidies, and investment.
Labor and environmental representatives said at an October 28
Washington International Trade Association event that non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) are planning a major demonstration
when the ministerial meeting opens November 30.
The demonstration will be held after NGOs conduct an environmental
and health day to advance their agenda, said Mark Vallianatos, an
international policy analyst of the Friends of the Earth U.S.A.
John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, said the
current WTO framework is flawed because it excludes NGOs from policy
making. Labor groups are calling for a two-year moratorium on further
expansion of WTO authority over global trade so the WTO could work on
becoming more transparent and democratic, he said.
The WTO "is on the wrong track, and our message is no new rules,"
Cavanagh said.
The WTO holds its third ministerial meeting November 30 to December 3
in Seattle, where the ministers are expected to launch a new round of
trade negotiations.
Major U.S. business groups have opposed incorporating environmental
and labor issues into the next trade round.
The Clinton administration has said, though, that the "WTO should
commit to collaborate more closely with the International Labor
Organization (ILO)" on labor issues. The administration has also
called for a WTO working group on labor issues like the existing one
on environmental issues.
Cavanagh said labor groups want to restrict the power of the WTO's
dispute-settlement mechanism in order to prevent what they regard as
its erosion of national labor laws without acceptable global
standards. Environmental groups also argue the WTO already has too
much authority, giving it the power to undermine strong national
environmental laws, he said.
Vallianatos said environmental groups do not want WTO market-access
agreements expanded into environmentally- sensitive areas -- such as
forestry and fisheries -- unless there is WTO reform reflecting
deference to national environmental standards.
He also said environmental groups are seeking to reopen the
previously approved Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, in part to
consider issues about biotechnology and food safety.