Trade unions push for fairer global trade policy

The participants learned about the United States' generalized system of preferences (GSP). They also learned how an additional tariff of US$4.4 billion was imposed on the products of Thailand. This tariff was due to violation of labour rights.

The US customs also regularly invokes section 307 of the Tariff Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to withhold imported products suspected of using forced labour. For example, the products of several Malaysian rubber gloves companies were withheld for complaints.

The executive director of the Competence Centre for Human Rights Due Diligence Kelly Fay Rodríguez outlined a range of mechanisms now available to unions globally. These allow them to raise labour complaints, including:

Labor Advisory Committee under the office of the US Trade Representative, National administrative offices (NAO) under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. In addition, Labor Rapid Response Mechanism of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters under EU trade agreements. Also, Risk assessment and reporting mechanism under the European Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence (CSDDD).

Rodríguez pointed out the European Union's trade agreements require countries to make continued and sustained efforts to ratify 8 ILO fundamental conventions. In addition, labour dispute findings in Korea drove the Korean government to ratify ILO Conventions 29, 87 and 98.

In exchanging their experience on trade policy and labour issues, trade unionists raised concerns about forced labour and union busting at nickel mines in Morowali, Indonesia. They also highlighted anti-union discrimination and forced labour at TaiDoc Technology Corporation in Taiwan R.O.C. Furthermore, they also discussed tax avoidance by digital companies as a related challenge to fair trade and labour standards.

Participants plan to check with their respective governments on the status of trade agreements in their countries. They will also make the union's role visible as part of the social dialogue. Meanwhile, participants also agreed to continue building capacity and awareness on trade agreements. They plan to focus on how to use available mechanisms.

Associate professor, Verna Dinah Viajar, from the University of the Philippines reminded the participants about the historical context of trade agreements. She highlighted the role of trade unions to fight for trade justice and to reshape more equitable trade agreements. Moreover, she encouraged them to support national industrial policies in developing countries.

"IndustriALL Congress resolved that trade is not an end in itself but must benefit workers and societies as a whole. Labour conditionalities play an important role in this regard. Therefore, IndustriALL counters concrete violations of workers' and trade union rights by multinational companies or dependent suppliers along the supply chains by using international mechanisms,"

said Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.