TUAC NEWS

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Pro-development approach essential if WTO talks to resume, says ITUC

31/07/2008

In a statement released on 30 July commenting on the recent collapse of the of global trade talks in Geneva – the Doha round – the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), called for negotiators to make a clear shift from the current “Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA)” architecture for negotiations in manufactured products in order to provide less drastic tariff reductions and increased flexibilities for developing countries.

Unions expressed concerns regarding the fact that considerable weight was brought to bear on developing countries to accept the NAMA proposals that were on the table, even though they stood to result in job losses and increased pressure on workers’ wages and working conditions, and to prevent new industrial jobs from being created.

“Any final deal must be analysed in terms of its benefits and impact for workers and the poor,” stated ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. “The competitive pressures that cause violations of workers’ rights and unequal distribution of the benefits of trade require serious attention when talks resume if workers and the poor are to benefit from trade liberalisation. An agreement that brings more hardship to workers in developing countries is simply not acceptable.”

“The TUAC shares these concerns” said John Evans General Secretary of the TUAC. “The collapse of the multilateral trade talks comes amid alarming trends in inequalities and wage compression in both developed and developing countries and the persistence of macro-imbalances between regions. OECD governments have a shared responsibility to engage a new approach to the global trade and investment system that is more soundly based on social justice and fair distribution of wealth.”

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