<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3401" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>[from the folks in Canada]</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader>-----Original Message----- From: Ellen Gould [mailto:murrayg._dobbin@bc.sympatico.ca] Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 11:15 PM To: Lisa & Ian Murray Subject: Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labor? </DIV>Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labor?   “It [the Internet] will destroy one of the great tyrannies of the past, the tyranny of location. Your accountant may now live anywhere, and already the WTO is saving you a lot of money by outsourcing translation -- thanks to electronic transmission we can use translators working at home in countries all over the world.” Mike Moore, Director-General, World Trade Organization, September 1999 (from a speech by Moore, available on the Internet at <A href="http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/mm6.htm">http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/mm6.htm</A>) So here we have the WTO Director General’s bold vision of the future - employers scouring the globe to get work done on the cheap by home-based workers. Increasing corporate power to shift services work anywhere in the world is the focus of the new round of negotiations on the WTO’s General Agreement on Services.  In preparation for the millennium round, the WTO Secretariat has carried out a global investigation to identify any measures governments take that might restrain the ability to shift service work and reduce workers wages. But do the WTO staff really identify trade barriers as problems because employers cannot pay the lowest possible wages?  After all, their own salaries are paid by the taxes of workers in WTO member countries. Here are some samples of what the WTO Secretariat actually says, and the places where you can find the original WTO documents so you can check for yourself: Driving Down Wages in the Retail Sector In the retail field, the WTO Secretariat says national requirements that keep corporations from “minimizing labour costs” are  an  “Explicit Barrier to Trade”: “33. Given the high labour intensity of distribution (especially in retailing), the sector is affected by limitations on the movement of natural persons [i.e. people].  Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from minimizing labour costs through international recruitment.”  Source: “Distribution Services”, Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998, on the Internet at:<A href="http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm">http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm</A> Driving Down Wages in Environmental Services The WTO staff see a need for employers to be able to recruit foreign workers in the area of  environmental services, such as garbage collection, as well. “30. Given the relatively high labour intensity of some environmental services, such as refuse disposal, the sector is affected by limitations on the movement of natural persons.  Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from minimizing labour costs through international recruitment.” “Environmental Services”, Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998 on the Internet at: <A href="http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm">http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm</A>  Of course, there is another way that nationality requirements could be viewed, such as “Nationality requirements for staff prevent firms from threatening to relocate if their workers do not accept low wages”or “Nationality requirements ensure that corporations do not engage in a race to the bottom in terms of working conditions.” It all depends on your point of view. Driving Down Wages in the Health Sector In the health field, the WTO staff say the biggest benefit to be gained is through opening up health services jobs to foreign workers: “60. (T)he most significant benefits from trade are unlikely to arise from the construction and operation of hospitals, etc., but their staffing with more skilled, more efficient and/or less costly personnel than might be available on the domestic labour market.”  “Health and Social Services” Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998, available on the Internet at: www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm Driving Down Wages by Lowering Standards In order to free up the ability of firms to “minimize labour costs through international recruitment”, WTO negotiatiors will discuss rules to make it easier for foreign workers to get temporary work visas.  Work is already going on in the WTO to make service employees as interchangeable as possible by eliminating differences in qualification requirements, and reducing these to no more than is necessary in the view of  WTO-approved authorities. The experience with NAFTA shows that giving the maximum flexibility to corporations to hire cheap labour does not help workers anywhere, either in industrialized or “developing” nations. (See Pulling Apart: The Deterioration of Employment and Income in North America Under Free Trade, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)     </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>