AFL-CIO GATS Resolution Calls for Greater Transparency and Workers' Rights

  
The AFL-CIO, the United States federation of trade unions, is becoming more and more sophisticated in its efforts to influence US trade policy. At its most recent Executive Council meeting, on February 27, 2002 in New Orleans, the leaders drafted a lengthy resolution on the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The document discusses the proposed expansion of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), arguing that the WTO negotiators "are not only trying to extend the reach of GATS to more sectors and thus more areas of our lives, but they are also working to create new GATS rules that will further limit how governments around the world regulate and provide services in the public interest. Unfortunately," the resolution claims, "the interests of workers and their families have not been the focus of these GATS negotiations. Instead, negotiators are prying open countries' markets to foreign service providers without adequate public discussion or any clear assessment of the impacts these negotiations will have on workers' rights, the environment, and social and economic development."

The document goes on to provide some analysis and guidelines that the unions would like to see applied, but concludes that the negotiations should be suspended "until a full and open assessment of the GATS is completed." It also makes two points that are part of the general questioning of the current trade negotiations: enforceable commitments to protect workers' rights and the environment, and transparency. The AFL-CIO calls for draft negotiating positions and other country documents, along with the WTO's own documents, to be made available to the public. "Even the best set of GATS rules will not provide much comfort to workers and their families until the WTO dispute resolution process becomes more transparent and allows the participation of interested stakeholders such as trade unions and other civil society organizations," it concludes.

A full reading of the document is worthwhile for a summary of many of the points in dispute as well as a concise reading of the unions' demands. Many of these are linked to similar positions advanced in the discussions leading up to Doha and other WTO and FTAA meetings, but the AFL-CIO document presents a precise and official union position that has obviously been crafted to be used in lobbying efforts.

For the full text of the AFL-CIO resolution, see: http://www.aflcio.org/publ/estatements/feb2002/trade.htm