Social Dialogue in Subregional Trade Negotiations – Example for the FTAA?
  

A range of different groups have tried to insert social considerations into the FTAA trade discussions. Many of these efforts center around the theme of social dialogue, which has as its inspiration the tripartite structure of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Under this system, labor, management and government explore mechanisms to develop and implement policy together. One of the first such efforts is the OAS’s Inter-American Labor Ministers Conference, an ongoing effort to modernize the hemisphere’s labor ministries as stipulated in the Summit of the Americas Plan of Action.

Some observers question whether subregional efforts at social dialogue might prove to be more effective than hemisphere-wide projects. In 1998, for example, MERCOSUR approved a Labor and Social Charter whose agenda includes the development of an enforcement mechanism for worker rights. The extraordinary level of dialogue and cooperation involved in this process is evident in the minutes of the last meeting on the subject, which was held in Buenos Aires on April 27-28. There, representatives of South American labor movements, governments and employers were assisted in their discussions by representatives of the ILO’s Buenos Aires office. Their efforts may receive a boost from the European Union, which—as part of its effort to gain a commercial foothold in the South American common market—has set up a MERCOSUR Desk to coordinate technical assistance projects to the sub-region. MERCOSUR would like to see these projects include financing for broader technical studies and the implantation of effective mechanisms to monitor labor markets and worker issues. The next meeting on the topic is scheduled for June 20-21.

As reported elsewhere on AmericasNet, efforts at integration in the Andean region are not faring well either politically or economically. However, there has been some progress in the area of social dialogue, including an effort to produce—or in this case, reproduce—a social charter based on the Simón Rodríguez Agreement of 1973, which has not been implemented since 1983. On May 10-11, vice ministers of labor from Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia met in Lima, where they agreed to submit a draft revision to their labor ministers and presidents. Unions in the region greeted this decision with satisfaction due to the agreement’s balanced, tripartite structure. The ILO was instrumental in this success, using a “building block” approach of sub-regional technical assistance to gain greater attention to the role of labor rights in the integration process. In this case, the negotiations had to overcome the initial reluctance of some governments to accept a tripartite approach to labor market questions as preparations are made for the Andean Common Market to begin functioning in the year 2005. The OAS has also been monitoring progress in this area, which is linked to its overall efforts to modernize labor ministries through the Summit process. More information is available at www.comunidadandina.org and www.oas.org/udse/udsehome.htm

At a more decentralized level, social dialogue is also being expanded in the Caribbean. This was the theme of a recent tripartite symposium held on April 12-14 in Trinidad, entitled “The Promotion of Social Dialogue in the Wider Caribbean.” The symposium was a collaborative initiative by the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation, the Caribbean Congress of Labour, the ILO, the Martinique Economic and Social Council and the European Union. Participants included representatives of labor and employer organizations from Anguilla, Barbados, Belize, Curaçao, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Suriname, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Joining them were representatives of various regional and international organizations, including the ILO, the European Commission, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the CARICOM Secretariat and the ACP Secretariat. Key to these deliberations, as with the cases cited above, is the technical support of the ILO and the presence of the European Union.