Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: : Reply to Peterfrom David Bacon

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

Doug,
     And it was not the tea served in Seattle either
(that was latte or chai anyway, right?).  No, it was
not, "let's maybe sort of open a dialogue; it was
shut the shop down and make sure that there are
no negotiations on cutting EU ag subsidies or
blocking unconscionable US anti-dumping suits."
      BTW, Lee seems to be wanting all of them.
Good for her.  Others on this list have been singling
out "the right to organize" and letting the others alone.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, December 09, 1999 10:14 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:14523] Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: : Reply to Peterfrom
David Bacon


>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>>Again, Max, who is to decide which of the
>>worthy ILO core provisions are going to be the
>>ones we (the US?  the WTO?) actually crack
>>down and impose trade sanctions over?
>
>Barkley, can you descend from that high horse of yours and read what
>the assistant director of public policy for the AFL-CIO has actually
>said?
>
>>[Thea] Lee: We've built a very strong consensus among labor unions
>>around the world about the importance of incorporating enforceable
>>workers' rights into international trade agreements. These include
>>the freedom of association, the right to bargain collectively and
>>provisions on child labor, forced labor and employment
>>discrimination. The question is how international organizations can
>>support the goal of observing core labor standards. The IMF and the
>>World Bank could include as one of the conditions for loans the
>>observance of these standards. By not having any rules on workers'
>>rights, the WTO makes it difficult for countries to implement and
>>enforce core labor standards. The very absence of rules undermines
>>countries' abilities to enforce them. But frankly we're a long way
>>from having consensus that this is an issue the countries want to
>>discuss. Because the WTO is a multilateral organization, we need to
>>start with some more modest goals of opening a dialogue about what
>>constructive role it can play in promoting core labor standards. Our
>>ultimate goal is to incorporate workers' rights and environmental
>>protections into WTO rules. But we can't start with that. In the
>>short term we hope to force the WTO to acknowledge that its actions
>>have a bearing on labor standards and begin a conversation that will
>>one day lead to a change in the rules.
>
>This is pretty weak tea, and bears no resemblance to your fantastic
>version of their position, much less the position of the U.S.
>government.
>
>Doug
>
>