[CTC] Unions, civil society groups: IPEF countries must commit – first – to labor changes

[Arthur Stamoulis]

If you haven’t already, please retweet the letter here <https://twitter.com/citizenstrade/status/1631274115419062273?s=20>


Unions, civil society groups: IPEF countries must commit – first – to labor changes
Inside U.S. Trade, 3/3/23
 
Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity countries must commit to stronger labor laws and climate provisions before the agreement is finalized, a broad array of labor unions and civil society groups told the president this week.
 
In a letter to President Biden <https://insidetrade.com/sites/insidetrade.com/files/documents/2023/mar/wto2023_0185a.pdf> on Thursday, the unions and other groups insisted that IPEF partners “be required to make the changes to their labor laws necessary to align them with their new IPEF obligations before the pact is signed by the United States.” 
 
More than 400 unions, civil society groups and others signed the letter. They include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Service Workers Union, Public Citizen, the Sierra Club and many more.
 
The letter says, “we are heartened by and appreciate reports that IPEF will not include some of the damaging provisions found in past trade agreements, such as the anti-worker, anti-environment and anti-democratic investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system and public procurement terms that could undermine ‘Buy America,’ ‘buy local’ and ‘buy green’ programs.”
 
However, the groups said, some IPEF countries have “records of labor rights violations, including unionist assassinations, human trafficking, forced labor, child labor and more.” 
 
If the administration hopes to achieve a “worker-centered trade model,” they added, the framework must include “strong labor rights commitments based on standards set in the International Labor Organization’s core conventions, and it must also include facility-specific enforcement mechanisms, building off the Rapid Response Mechanism in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).”
 
The framework countries “must take steps forward relative to the USMCA, not backward, on labor rights and labor enforcement,” the letter states.
 
And, it notes, the commitments must come before the deal is finalized.
 
IPEF talks to date involve 14 countries, including the U.S., which leads the framework. The framework features four pillars: trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy. USTR oversees the trade pillar; the Commerce Department leads the other three. 
 
On climate, a key component of the talks, the groups argued “a step forward” is not enough. “Given that previous U.S. trade agreements, including the USMCA, fail to even mention the term ‘climate change,’ IPEF will need to be particularly ambitious in its climate provisions if it is to help the United States and Indo-Pacific region achieve their climate and environmental justice goals,” the groups said.
 
They want IPEF partners to “adopt, implement and maintain binding climate standards, and must likewise extend swift-and-certain enforcement mechanisms to those provisions.” 
 
As for the framework’s digital trade component, the letter says it “must not be allowed to undermine the administration’s domestic anti-monopoly and tech regulation agenda by locking in international rules that threaten consumer privacy, data security, worker rights, civil rights, algorithm justice and competition policy here and throughout the Indo-Pacific.” 
 
“As your administration, Congress and other IPEF countries all work hard to rein in Big Tech abuses, IPEF must not be used as a backdoor to undermine those efforts,” it continues. 
 
Last month, the AFL-CIO issued a comprehensive proposal <https://insidetrade.com/node/176125> for how the administration can ensure agreements such as IPEF and others will be truly “worker-centered” when it comes to the digital economy and trade. The organization claimed that U.S. digital trade policies typically favor large technology corporations over workers. 
 
“The voices of working people must be at the table in shaping the direction of digital trade policy,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement on the proposal. “Corporations shouldn’t dictate the rules of the global digital economy with no regard for working people. Their drive to monetize data frequently violates crucial privacy rights and exploits workers. The power of technology can be harnessed to build a fairer digital economy, produce economic growth that is shared by everyone and create life-sustaining opportunities for every working person far into the future.”
 
The AFL-CIO told Inside U.S. Trade it planned to meet with USTR to discuss the labor organization’s digital trade agenda.
 
In their letter this week, the unions and other organizations urged the administration to “terminate” confidential agreements amongst IPEF countries because such a practice “undermines the ability for an informed citizenry to provide input on policy that impacts their livelihoods and communities.”
 
The groups said the administration should “publish upcoming U.S. IPEF proposals for public comment prior to tabling them, including those on critical chapters like labor, the environment and digital trade that we understand will be tabled soon, in addition to all other texts. And we urge the United States and other countries to publish proposals and any draft composite texts at the close of each IPEF negotiating round.”
 
A second round of IPEF negotiations <https://insidetrade.com/node/176270> is set for March 13-18 in Bali, Indonesia. Tai has said the U.S. could propose text on the framework’s digital trade element at the next round. -- Maydeen Merino (mmerino at iwpnews.com <mailto:mmerino at iwpnews.com>)
 

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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